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tv   Washington This Week  CSPAN  September 29, 2012 10:00am-2:00pm EDT

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you can pick it up in hard copy over the weekend or you can get it online. kevin mccoy, thank you very much for being on the "washington journal." guest: my pleasure. thank you. host: we want to tell you about what is coming up tomorrow. we begin with a discussion with dr. jill stein, the green party presidential candidate. we will next talk to virgil goode, the constitution party candidate, and we will wrap up with the author of "third-party matters," donald green. thank you very much for joining us for this edition of the "washington journal." we will see you♪
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♪ >> city first of the presidential debates wednesday night live on c-span and online at c-span.org, watch and engage. next on c-span, and national survey on illicit and prescription drug use. followed by a look at the link between national security and childhood obesity. later, and allied campaign rally with vice-president joe biden. he is touring through florida. and a stop in fort myers as part of his swing through the state. join us for live coverage of the vice president at 11:40 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> every generation in our history has worked and sacrificed to leave a better country to their children or
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grandchildren and future generations. we were then a spending their money. we are now even more, much more spending their money. and we are leaving them a mess. it will be very difficult to deal with. and if we are about week, just think if -- comes to take us over. the last thing i want to see is our country taken over because we are so financially weak. we are on the edge of the cliff. we have got to start fixing it now. otherwise, we are living a disaster to our children and grandchildren. we could even lose our country. >> ross perot interviewed by richard wolf. find the article in "usa today" on monday and on usatoday.com.
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next and the national survey on use of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. was published by the substance abuse and mental health services administration, part of the health and human services department. this is just over one hour. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> i am dr. westley clark, the director of the center for behavioral health statistics, and the tarp -- and the the substance abuse and mental health service administration. i want to welcome you all here. as you know, traditionally we coordinate the release of our initial report with the
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observance of national recovery month. this year's recovery month theme is joined the voices for recovery, it is worth it. and indeed, as we look at some favorable results depicted in this day that we are releasing today, we are making progress. and yet we must remain vigilant in this endeavor. much still needs to be done to provide quality service to those that need it. and to promote prevention in america. as samhsa of breach its anniversary and reflect on the accomplishments of the agency over the past two decades, we realize that there would not have been possible without our colleagues in the field who have contributed to the success of our 20 years of service. especially those who work tirelessly in the trenches, providing help and counseling to those affected by substance and health disorders. but as continue to recognize gains made by those who have achieved recovery and those who served them during the remainder
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of september. let us continue to increase the number of events celebrated this year. which to date, the number is nearly 1000. continuing to carry the message that prevention works, it is effective, and recovery is indeed possible. i applaud your efforts and look forward to your continued participation. i would now like to introduce pam hyde, since november 2009, she has been leading the efforts to reduce the impact of substance issues and mental health disorders of america's community. , under samhsa has continued to demonstrate that prevention works and treatment is effective. and people can and do recover from mental-health disorders. administrator hyde. [applause] >> good morning. and welcome everyone. and think you will, dr. westley clark.
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i would like to think the samhsa team and the planning partners who host hundreds of events every year and make such a significant impact in spreading the message of recovery. also want to thank joe, who oversees the mass of data collection and analysis we conduct every year for our national survey, which utilizes 700 data collectors and surveys approximately 70,000 people, ages 12 and older throughout the country. thank you, joe. [applause] no small feat. this survey is the most comprehensive survey of substance use and treatment services for those disorders in the united states. because of the statistical power of this survey, is a prime source of information. on the scope and nature of the many substance abuse and mental health issues affecting the nation. i am also pleased to be here with our partners from the white house -- the director r. gil
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kerlikowske. [applause] he is one of the nation's most powerful voices for the importance of prevention of substance abuse and the support of recovery from addiction. this is recovery month, as you heard. we are especially appreciative of the efforts of everyone in this room at around the country who are interested in the messages of recovery, and what recovery means to those with mental and substance abuse disorders and their families. it is also a month in which we go beyond recovery and commit to the wellness of persons and recovery from mental illness or addictions to support the full health and well-being of these individuals, their families and their communities. he will hear this morning about both of these issues and from some of the persons and recovery and those working on one as initiatives for themselves and others. but r. gil kerlikowske and i know that -- just as much as
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diabetes, hypertension and tobacco use. to address these issues, just as with other diseases, or public health issues, we need surveillance data. and we need analysis of risk, protective factors and access to treatment when needed. today's annual event marks the release of the substance abuse portion of the findings from samhsa's national survey. it indicates the overall health of americans by examining behavioral health indicators such as increases or decreases in substance use and dependents and mental-health problems such as depression. for individuals struggling with mental illness or addiction, sometimes both, what we do and say down to the information we share as a government, as a nation, as a community helps them write their own story of hope and healing. as one gentleman posted on the
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voices of recovery page at recoverymonth.gov -- getting and living well with a merger program of recovery is the greatest part of my autobiography i have to offer. the data we released today will shine a light on the status of drug use in america, and help l of us see where we are making gains, and where we need to work harder to address these critical public health issues. the matter what the data tells us about substance abuse and the disease of addiction, we release this data during this month to underscore that people can and do recover. as of heard, we are in the 20th year in serving the nation. and the national recovery month is in its 23rd year. this month acknowledges and celebrates recovery from addiction and mental illness, of advances int
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science -- through evidence based practices and thousands upon thousands of united voices of recovery across the country. recovery has captured an audience and is rallying in nations. about this time two years ago leaders and the liberal health field, consisting of people in recovery from mental health and substance abuse, met -- in on these efforts and in consultation with many stakeholders, samhsa has come up with a working definition and set of principles for recovery. i invite you to go on for .samhsa.gov.ww defining it has been a true process. now we are working with persons and recovery for mental illness
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and substance abuse to articulate the differences. as well as the commonalities of these respective prophecies. we agree on the guiding principles to recovery through terms and concepts such as hope pacs, a person driven, a holistic work. many pathways, relational, culture, addressing a trauma, strength and responsibility, and respect. a bit later in the program you will hear directly from a few guests who embarked on a personal journey through the process of recovery. as you will hear, the challenges are great, and the pitfalls are many. and yet at the core, resilience, hope, courage and faith remain sustained. before i highlight a few facts from the national survey, let me remind all of us the importance of mental health and substance abuse in our country's help -- to our country's health. according to the centers for disease control, half of all americans will meet the criteria
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for mental illness at some point in their lives. and half of us knows someone in recovery from substance abuse. substance abuse disorders increase the risk for chronic disease, sexually transmitted disease, hiv/aids and mental illness. people in these disorders are twice as likely as the general population to die prematurely. and ultimately. behavioral health conditions lead to more deaths than hiv/aids traffic accidents and breast cancer combined. this is a huge public health issue. so it is critical that we know the facts about these conditions. from the 2011 survey that we are releasing today, we know that an estimated 20.6 million persons, that is 8% of our population aged 12 and older, were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the last year. an estimated 22.5 billion americans aged 12 and older are
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current illicit drug users. rates of current illicit drug use among adults and youths 12 to 17 remains similar to rates in the 2010. marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug. in two dozen 11, the 18.1 million -- in 2011, there were 18.1 million users. these numbers translate to real lives. how people are living their lives and how this affects their help and well being now and in the future. just last month there was research from the academy of sciences that was reported in the new york times that demonstrates that early in their wide use is linked to iq loss. they found that adolescents marijuana users showed iq declines and more persistent use was aligned with greater decline.
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people think it is not that risky to use marijuana. the study that i am talking about, in the study, partisan and to use marijuana heavily from high school through age 38 scored eight points lower on an iq test when they were originally tested as 13 year olds. iq scores are still usually pretty stable. the point here is marijuana use does have an impact. it is risky. especially for our use. we need to tell them that. we have a believer. [laughter] this study and many others like it remind us of the importance of our prevention efforts. prevention is especially critical when we consider that according to a 2009 report by the institute of medicine, half of all cases of diagnosable mental and substance abuse disorders begin by age 14. and 0.75% of them by age 24.
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-- 75% of them by age 24. the survey are releasing shows these levels remained relatively constant from 2010 to 2011. there were some notable exceptions. for example, the number of people age 12 and older currently using prescription drugs for non-medical purposes actually declined overall from 7 million people in 2010 to 6.1 million people in 2011. the decline 418 to 25 year olds was significant. this is the age group with the highest rated use in 2001 -- 200011. 5%, down from 5.9% in the 2010. while the decline occurred for all ages, the percent of use among 12th to 17, and older
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adults remained unchanged. the fact that there was no significant change since 2008 and current non medical prescription drug use for a number people aged 12 to 17 may indicate a problem that we need to look at. in other important leading indicator that suggests a problem among our young people is initiation or first-time use of prescription drugs, non medically. the 2011 estimates that 3.1 million persons and she did not medical prescription drug use in the last 12 months. over the 10-year period, 2002- 2011 -- a sustained rate of about 6000 new users per day for 10 consecutive years. many of those not go on to use
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again, or to use non-medically again. but more than 0.3% of these users were under the age of 18 when a first used. and that is a concern. high rates of initiation and use at young ages typically lead to elevated levels of consequences, such as dependents, need for treatment, overdoses, death among adults several years later. the number with nonmedical pain reliever dependents increased to 1.4 million in 200011, including 472,000 that were aged 18 to 25. we have good news in this area, and some things that concern us and tell us we need to keep up the vigilance. at the same time from indicators of treatment for abuse has been rising steadily over time. i actually count that as good news. in the sense that we are
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recognizing this as a treatable illness, and that people are increasingly reaching out to get the help they need. the number of people receiving specialty substance abuse treatment in the last year for misuse of pain relievers increased from 199,000 in 2002, to 438,000 in 2011. turning to other kinds of drug use, the past month, a hallucinogen use declined in 2011 from 1.2 million to not ordered 72,000. and past month tobacco use continued to decline as well. that is good news. however, the rates of heroin use and binge drinking went up. the number of people aged 12 and older who used heroin in the last year rose from three under 73,000 in 2007, to 620,000 in 2011. nearly one quarter, about 22.6% of the people aged 12 and older participated in binge drinking.
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that is 58.3 million people in our country, over the age of 12 participated in binge drinking. we can change these patterns by regular screening for alcohol use in a primary care, emergency rooms and other settings, in my brief intervention to help individuals understand safe amount of all lawyers and the dangers of overusing and binge drinking. we can change these patterns are educating parents and use that getting drunk on the weekends is neither healthy, cool, nor an expected part of american culture. let me talk about treatment for drug use. in to the and 11, 21.6 million people aged 12 and older, that is 8.4%, it needed treatment for an illicit drug problem. of those only 2.3 million receive treatment at a special the facility.
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often, the reason for not seeking treatment include lack of coverage or an inability to afford it. while we have a long journey ahead with regard to prevention and treatment, the good news is we are embarking on a time when we are to the accessibility to achievement for the affordable care act, after parity disorder services, and we are actively working on quality treatment .hrough samhsa's efforts again, i want to thank you all for your interest today. and thank you for helping us to spread the message of recovery. i will turn the microphone back to dr. clark. >> thank you, pam hyde. since his appointment, r. gil kerlikowske has been a driving
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force in implementing the policy. he coordinates all aspects of federal drug control programs and implementation of the president's national drug control policy. he brings 37 years of law enforcement and drug policy experience to the position. most recently, prior to coming to washington, he was the chief of police in seattle, washington. and prior to that, he was a deputy director for the united states department of justice office of community policing services. r. gil kerlikowske. [applause] >> good morning. thank you. i would also like pam hyde to pam, and the samhsa team. it is a real partnership and has been for well over three years. national survey on drug use and health provides the important markers but we need to measure
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ourselves and our work by. it tells us what is working. but it also reminds us of what we have got to do an order to keep our nation healthy. before i discuss the data being released today, i wanted to provide a bit of a perspective of this administration's approach to drug policy. and since my conformation and 2009, we have repeatedly affirmed that we are not waging a war on drugs. as a bumper sticker is totally inappropriate and it does not anywhere near reflected the approach we are using towards this. approach is grounded in the firm understanding that addiction is a disease. not a moral failing. it can be treated. and as we well know, recovery is possible. we have emphasized drug prevention programs to help stop substance abuse before it begins. and we have invested in partnerships and programs but the drug free communities and the above the influence media campaign that helps to reach young people with quality prevention messages. and with the passage of the
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affordable care act, substance abuse treatment is becoming increasingly integrated into the mainstream health care. we have also created a branch in our office dedicated to recovery. and that is the first of its kind in the exhibit of office of the president. 3 national drug control strategy, the country's policy -- will spend over $31 billion on a drug education and treatment programs at the federal level during these past three years. we are serious about strengthening our efforts to reduce the demand for drugs in this country. and during the 23rd annual national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month, i think it is an especially good time to look back at the progress the recovery committee has made a deal last two decades. in june, i spoke at the betty ford center about recovery and importance of making -- getting rid of the stigmas around addiction. as we talk about recovery, and
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now we understand that recovery is its own invaluable -- and a valuable process. we unequivocally support the recovery community. gathering strength of the recovering commodity has mirrored the long-term decline of drug use in america. and the survey has trekked immediate trends, it is important to step back and take a look at the big picture. over the last 30 years, overall drug use in america has declined by about 30%. we are pleased to see that this year's results show that we are making progress addressing the epidemic of prescription drug abuse and america. from 2007 to 2011, we saw and 11% drop in the number of americans who abused prescription drugs during the past month. in 2010, my office published the first goal and reducing prescription drug abuse by 15%
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for the next five years. and as evidenced by today's findings, we are well on our way to achieving that goal. drug driving is another signature effort in our office. there's some welcome news for everyone on the roads. for those seeking to protect public health and safety, and 2011, 3.7% of the population reported driving under the influence. a 12% decrease since 2009. while we have to await the national roadside survey, which will provide an update on the prevalence of drug driving on the nation's roads, we are encouraged by the data that shows its strategy goal of reducing drunk driving by 10% by 2015 will be achieved. these results show we are making steady progress with the 2011 data also pending a troubling picture in the rise of heroin use. a trend that warrants close monitoring. a trend that may be driven by
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the bills -- individuals switching from prescription drugs to maryland. the trend is troubling for many reasons, including increased risk of overdose. we strongly support programs that encourage the use of the lifesaving over those reversal drug among first responders. and we applaud the effective collaboration among law enforcement and the public health groups to find common ground in overdose prevention. in today's increasingly competitive job market, it requires a workforce that is prepared to get the job done. i was concerned to see that the rate of marijuana use among the unemployed has nearly doubled. given the rise in marijuana use and the decreasing perceptions of risk associated with this drug, it is more important than ever to educate young people about the long-term negative consequences of marijuana use,
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especially in adolescence. that was certainl evident in h administrator -- an administrator hyde's remarks. -- but issues of longstanding of longstanding priority in our office. i am also reminded of the work that lies ahead. not only to curb heroin use and prevent marijuana use among young people, but the other issues that we all must focus upon if we are going to have a healthy nation. and look forward to continuing to work with our partners. in the government and also are partners out of government. to build this america that we all want to see. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, r. gil kerlikowske. i would like to introduce jared hamre, a person and recovery.
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jared hamre, can speak to the issues of prescription drug abuse and heroin. [applause] >> thank you. good morning. my name is jared hamre, i am 28 years old and a person and recovery from drug addiction. i just celebrated seven years of not using drugs last week. [applause] thank you. my life growing up was not all that difficult to be honest. i had loving parents and older siblings. there was really not much braman in my life. when i was around 12 years old, my parents went through a divorce. even in the midst of that, i did not find it to be difficult. however, after a few years, my father was unable to provide my mother with the correct support
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for me. i began working at 14. at first, it was just a few hours a week. but it quickly became close to full time by i was -- by the time was 15. i was also playing sports and going to school. i did not mind it. give me something to do and accomplished. maybe it was because was always working or playing sports. but i never came across the temptation to use drugs in school. only weeks after graduating high school, i tried my first drug. one night at a party, without being coaxed or pressured, and is used in prescription pain reliever to get high. like others, -- and very quickly became hooked. within one week, and moved to hear when, simply because of the cost. when i started using drugs, i started a good career. i was able to maintain being a functional addict for almost two years. like so many others, drugs
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eventually took over my life. i began missing works, stop hanging out with friends. i started doing illegal activities and started feeling a horrible human being. a ruined family relationships, relationships with significant others. -- and friends, i really did not have any. fast forward to summer 2005, after 3.5 years of using her when, crack, cocaine -- after living in an abandoned building for two weeks, i decided it was time. i am shaking a little bit. on september 14, 2005, it was a difficult time. i hated it. looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened. i would not take it back for anything. i had regained my relationship with friends and family, they are stronger than ever. as for a significant other, i
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just celebrated my first wedding anniversary. [applause] i have 83-year-old son who motivates me every day. and i cannot -- i have a 3-year- old son who motivates me every day. and i have seven-month-old twins. i have owned and sold my first house and just upgraded. you may understand why. work full-time. and i own my own business. i enjoy speaking about recovery. some ask why i do it. i do it more for me than you out there. given that supports my recovery. if i can help one person, i am all for it. i hope to help stop problems before they begin. i now work part-time for massachusetts organization for addiction recovery, or statewide
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organization as a recovery of ticket. -- as a recovery advocate. i would not go back and change a thing even if i had the chance. i think you for allowing me to share. thanks. [applause] >> thank you. good to hear. your story is very important. now like to introduce a person who is also a leader in recovery, benjamin chin. [applause] >> good morning. thank you. it is an honor to be standing here sharing my recovery story and representing reality that
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recovery is possible at any age. my name is benjamin chin and i am a young person of long-term recovery. that means -- i have been free of dhaka and drugs for a little over four years. i have been given the opportunity to -- pursue a college degree and experience of the joys and difficulties like us to offer young adults. most importantly, recovery has given me the ability to use my voice and experience. for the last two years i have had the privilege to be a part of helping young people in recovery. we are in organization for and by young people and recovery. we are mobilizing to empower the bourse's of young people in recovery, to champion our cause. my passion for the recovery
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movement comes from my own experience with addiction to it first used marijuana and alcohol by the age of 13. as a result, i have experienced the absence of success. 15 years old as court mandated to my first treatment center. the first would attend of the next two years. as a struggling teenager and expressed the major gaps of parent support. there's no youth-focus support group. no alternative peer group. no option to attend the recovery a high-school. meister will continue for the next two years, -- my struggle continued for the next two years. i joined the recovery community in a 2007.
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for many young people, my same health condition from these burdens to society did not stop at age 19. my friend and i are living proof that they could. it is time to invest in recover some morion people can experience what we know. investing in recovery, we are investing in society. we pay taxes, we volunteer, we are role models. let us invest in long-term recovery support for young people so we can save lives and save resources. since joining the recovery committee, i had been living a life beyond my wildest dreams. this cannot happen without support. have the blessing of an incredibly family was an understanding from the beginning cured my sister and mother are both part of the recovery community. my sister has been a beacon of hope. my mom has also been in recovery is a family member for over six years. she actively participate in a
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peer to peer support groups for parents with youths of addiction. recovery is a journey. it is filled with support, camaraderie and love. are supported by peers going for the same experiences that i did throughout my incarceration. they shared their experience. six months after my release, and was accepted to rutgers university. i was able to move into the recovery house on campus, which has forever changed my life. for the past 2.5 years have been able to share my recovery with other people my age. it is may be more successful in school. given me incredible mentors that guide me in the light in my recovery. today to work with young people in recovery across the country. as a recovery of ticket. we are speaking out -- as a recovery advocate. we are speaking out. today brought september and
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year-round, a challenge all of you to join us in taking action so that any young person seeking recovery can do so. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, benjamin chin. i like the statement you made. i sort of want to paraphrase it. recovery come in like a beyond your wildest dreams. i want to take you to the director of -- in new jersey. >> good morning. . -- i am peggy swarbrick. of want to bring more attention to the critical recovery elements for people with mental health and substance abuse challenges. wellness is an area that is a
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part of my life and a focus of my research for many years. it started off with my own recovery. and then i brought it into my life and my work. evidence shows that people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses served by the public health system die on average decades earlier than we did not served by the public health system die on average decades earlier than others. increased morbidity and mortality, amongst the population is largely due to preventable risk behaviors such as smoking, obesity, substance use and an adequate access to medical care and or quality care and a combination of both. however, addressing wellness can't reverse this horrible trend. the truce is, behavioral health disorders and chronic illnesses are linked. we must take care of our bodies and other components of our well being to maintain good physical
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health and stay on our path to recovery. wellness' offers people and recovery additional tools to expand the recovery toolbox to support all dimensions of their selves and their recovery. the idea of wellness is not only the absence of disease and illness, but the presence of having purpose and meaning -- meaning in your life, finding activities that inspire us to get up and work on our recovery, and being active in work and play and heading toward all connections with relationships and people. you heard all of that from the previous speakers. wellness is thinking about ourselves would adjust our problems and are disabilities. or other things that are describing desperate medical model. for this initiative, which i am so proud to be caughpart of, we envision a future in which people with these disorders
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pursued optimal health, happiness, recovery, and a full and satisfying life in the community. wellness' helps us see ourselves and our recovery as very multi dimensional. we you can see ourselves through thinking about emotional, financial, social, spiritual, environment, occupational and zerintellectual. because the eight dimensional model of wellness. this is how we conceptualize wellness. care about as a bonus because people are physically sick and many are dying before the general population. we care about intellectual honest because we need help the minds and how the bodies and the knowledge to reclaim and manage or light and recovery. weaker but social wellness because the conditions about social isolation, leading people further from their healthy
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recovery. we care about spiritual oneness because the disease, all of these diseases robs us of our sense of spiritual connectedness. return about mental and emotional rawness because people need clear, live at mines, in order to live a productive lives and pursue recovery. recurve and marijuana's because it is impossible for people to feel better or well in places -- we care about occupational wellness because we need jobs to fill our days, to give it time and -- we need stable incomes and savings in order to live comfortably and ride out life's ups and downs. people experience on mama's
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because of many substance-abuse issues. -- people experience unwellness because of many substance abuse issues. job loss, very significant come in packs occupational-dimension of wellness leading to tight financial times, touching the financial dimension, which leads to reduced self care causing physical illness. stress affects all of these dimensions in many ways. wellness' starts at the individual level. need to stayre tha well. by reducing bad habits, pricing and meditating, reading the newspaper and internet and saving for a rainy day. the lens of wellness can build resiliency. the ability to bounce back. most of us, all of us here in
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this room will have episodes of illness, will lose a job, loved closend a relationships. this allows us to realize our potential and become a contracting members of their commodity. bring national wellness' week each september we celebrate each of the dimensions during that week, our hope is that individuals, organizations and communities will do activities and events that can carry us through our recovery. we carry them into our life and into our community. besides organizing wellness programs and activities, we hope that people will take the pledge for wellness and commit to key activities like cheerleaders, organizations and providers that will lead to improved quality of life, and years lived for people with mental dirders. last year's national on this week, last week's national well
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as weak -- last year's was the first, this was the second, we had a wonderful response. this year, it seems to follow me wherever i go, it is really exciting to hear about the many things of people are doing. national wellness' week occurs once a year, we should be celebrating and promoting wellness each day. i would be happy to share ideas and help you think about activities you can do and how you can look at the eight dimensions. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. wellness, happiness and recovery. finally, i would like to introduce the national one this week eire chairman. -- honorary chairman.
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>> good morning. is stanice.affordable care ac last week's individuals organizations and communities around the country marked the second annual national wellness week during national recovery month. i was delighted to represent and promote this important issue and inspire others to embrace a wellness and make it a daily part of their lives. now, what is well on this matter? my brothers and sisters, as you like me are dealing with mental health and substance used challenges are dying decades earlier than the rest of the population due to preventable illness. this is personal to me. things like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, these avoidable health
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conditions are silently killing our loved ones and friends, with behavioral challenges, because they mistakenly think that our mental and physical health are not linked. but they are wrong. our mental and physical health is all connected. wellness' can help us live longer lives that are better equipped to handle the stresses of life and recovery. the better we take care of our wellness, the better our physical health will be and the more successful our recovery journey will be as well. thank goodness that the the substance abuse and mental health service administration initiative promotes the conversation to reverse this horrible trend that not only affects individuals, but their families and friends as well as entire communities. personally, i have spent the last 27 glorious years overcoming clinical depression
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and heroin addiction. low self-esteem and trauma caused by teens rape and abuse of relationships. my journey to recovery is not easy. but i keep moving forward with faith and confidence, and realizing the dreams that i never thought i would ever live to achieve it. oftentimes, people with mental health and substance used challenges are told that they can never recover. never go back to work, never have children. in other words, never have a life worth living. they are told to not talk about their problems. and instead, stay quiet and keep their behavioral health issues secret. i am here to testify that secrets can be as harmful and as hurtful as the behavioral health challenges they hide. i understand the harmfulness of
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secrets. since beginning my journey to recovery, i have dedicated my life to inspire and empower others to share their secrets and stories with each other. and free themselves to embrace recovery and improved their well being. i know it is what saved me. expressing my trip through art with therapeutic -- through art was therapeutic. a big part of what i do now is to offer hope for those who of given up hope. and those who've given up on themselves. hope is the beginning. our passion, purpose and responsibility -- as a woman who died and kept coming back after a heroin overdose, is to spread that hope using the got-a gifted talent that he has given me. artistic impression can be an essential part of building hope and keeping us on the path to
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recovery. through the written word and spoken word, my books, poems, articles, it shows and plays, i have been able to share my story and continue healing my soul after decades of bodily depression and addiction. and with help, i am winning. [applause] each year national juana's week offers persons and recovery, peer leaders from all organizations and a platform to share countless efforts that take place every day and impact people's lives for the better. i have seen and experienced first hand pope that emerges when people discover how to change their lives were the better. i look forward to supporting that hope as this takes shape throughout this month and beyond. it is a journey. last friday hundreds of people and kennedys around the country
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joined in the online -- in communities around the country joined in on the line dance. -- artistic impressions for wellness, which would like to share for do you know. it is called i cannot turn back now. i cannot turn back now. i have come too far from that dark and lonely place. a mask on my face pretending never ending, watching the world to think i am ok. family and friends cared. i shined. i turned their help away. leave me alone. maybe i was born to die this way. but in the stillness of a briskly cold, full moon, a hopeless night, i raised my fist to have been shot repeatedly -- at the end of this tunnel, i was promised light. my schultze became a whisper,
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than a whimper as i cried myself -- mike shouts became a whisper, than a whimper as i cried myself to sleep. i felt that i could change. but that next morning it was different. it was changed. a woman made me laugh and cry, telling her story of triumph from pain. she said people give me hope, help me to do what i could not do alone. excuse me, i am kind of chilly, my nose is running. like her, a recovery started with help. i took suggestions. i began to discover the real me. after drawing public speaking and vocal glasses, my dream
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rekindled one day at a time. i found who are was born to be. i write my life experiences onto countless pages and watch my stories come to life as they are acted out on stages. when i sing i feel an inner confidence and hope of my pewter rising up inside of me. i know how a caged bird must feel after years when it is finally set free. and still dance like no one is looking. and i still speak secrets that die in the light of exposure, a critic expression helped me shielheal. i cannot turn back now. i have come too far from the dark and lonely place. no mask on my face. no more pretending, never ending, living well to live longer. staying free. the search, the light i searched for was right here all along
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inside of me. thank you. [applause] i hope that whether you dance your way to one estimate that each of you will take a pledge for thomas. on our web sitsite. please visit the web site at www.samhsa.gov/wellness. i lost my page. to find out more about national wellness week -- also there are great resources there from samhsa and one is initiative a partner, fda offices of women's health for your use as well.
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and do not forget to sign up for one this initiative updates to receive helpful information about wellness and national wellness we via email. i want to thank samhsa for leading this national effort to educate people about this problem, and for promoting recovery solutions. i think you immensely for giving me an opportunity to share today. i know i hope is contagious. and it through national on this week efforts today and in the future, let us --. thank you. [applause] thank you. >> thank you. it is not about the absence of symptoms, but hope and wellness.
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so, before we go to the question and answer session, i would like to thank everyone who has made monthear's 23rd recovery possible. not only those celebrating recovery, but the organizations and individuals that helped to organize hundreds of events throughout the country. there's much to celebrate this year. please remember that the educational outreach that occurs during recovery month about the treatment and the possibility of recovery is the message that we all need to deliver all year long. thank you. now we will entertain your questions. >> i am deaf.
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that is another reason i yell. i am the president of the -- foundation in richmond, virginia. i have been clean and sober over 30 years. [applause] i got clean when i was 23 and in the marine corps. i have seen a lot of action and recovery over 30 years. but in virginia specifically, not all states are equal. we are still fighting a civil rights and virginia. we have a state where they want to go backward. the federal government can do a great job intervening in the delivery of recovery support services. meaning the federal dollars -- to me it would make sense to make them spend a small portion on recovery support services, to include housing. housing is a critical element in recovery. i guess my thought process goes -- somehow forced the state to
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discriminate against recovery, like they do in virginia, to spend some of the federal dollars on the offensive recovery support services. that is the nature of my thought process. by doing so, we can really reduce --, help recovery. to block out recovery people -- it is just insane to me. the state is not going to change. but the federal government if you just make a rule or regulation, you have got to spend a small amount of recovery and stop blowing it to agencies and virginia. i would be glad to elaborate after the press conference, of course. but that is the general thought and presidents. -- precedence. >> we have some programs that are specific around recovery
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services. and we are doing some new initiatives with hud and some of our partners. to help people maintain housing. i could talk about that for a long time. i agree with you. we need to do more with support services. we are trying to incorporate that into our grant-making program to the extent that weekend. -- that we can. >> press? >> can you elaborate on what you are doing? i am with modern healthcare magazine. >> we are trying to look at the types of services that can be funded by medicaid. and the types of services that cannot be funded through that
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mechanism. so iran might use samhsa dollars for county, state or local dollars. and obviously for the relationship hud, the actual payment for the housing. the rent. the three agencies have been working closely together. along with the assistant secretary. attriting about how we can put together a vouchers, medicaid funding and non-medicaid funding to support a person and recovery and getting and maintaining housing. -- in recovery and getting and maintaining housing. >> i am from clinical psychiatry magazine. i have questions about synthetic drugs. a relaxed two or three years -- i was wondering if they are included in your survey. where they stand as far as your concerns go? >> do you want to comment on the
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synthetic drugs? we do not have the data. but what we are doing through our state authorities -- monitoring the presence of synthetic drugs -- r. gil kerlikowske, they want to comment. reach m inkay want to comment. -- may want to comment. >> -- the increase of synthetic drug experimentation by young people was very concerned. we will know more as the surveys go on. but the anecdotal information has been very concerning about not only the synthetic drugs, but also the bath salts issue
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that has come we hear quite a bit in the press reports around the country that we were glad to see a number of states have laws to ban many of the substances that are used to produce peace and said it -- the synthetic drugs. most helpful was that congress recently passed a synthetic drug ban. that will be helpful in stopping some of those chemicals at levels of importation. >> any other media questions? press? any questions from other than the media? >> i thank you. i want to thank all the speakers for inspiring us this morning and thank samhsa for your
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ongoing treatment of recovery around the country. this question has to do with the ramifications of what you have reported in the rising increase of heroin use and to the trend we are seeing in state medicaid programs that assemblies who are issuing restrictions for access to medication for therapies. i want to know if you can't comment if anything the federal government can do? >> the issue of treatment is in a transition is a fair way to say it. for some people, it has been hard to understand addiction as a disease and therefore, it has been hard to understand the role that medication may play in treating the disease. there are additional opportunities for using
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medication for treatment in certain circumstances. we are certainly supportive of that process where it is we're also interested in working with courts and judges and other individuals who have a responsibility or who have a role in helping people get into treatment and what their role is in supporting the appropriate kinds of treatments regardless of the individual's needs or based on the individual's needs. we support medication-assisted treatment. we anticipate, frankly, there will be additional opportunities for medication-assisted treatment as we learn more. the national institute of drug abuse is a key player in helping that research expand. i'm not sure if i am totally entering your question but this is clearly something we're learning more about. we have had some medication- assisted treatment for a long time.
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as new ones come out, people will have to get used to that issue. the bottom line is understanding addiction as a disease and i think there is still some folks in some places you don't understand that. they have a hard time with that concept. >> early on, the statement about the pathway to recover is that there are many. there is no obstacle -- opposition to the vacation- assisted there. i have met a number of public visits to centers or methadone clinics. we would very much hope that those are the types of medications and recovery that leads to abstinence and provides an opportunity to give additional information about education and prevention and treatment to the people that actually access those systems. >> all right, are there any other questions?
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in that case, this concludes the press conference. i want to thank our panelists. [applause] i want to thank you all for coming, thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> vice president joe biden is in florida today campaigning at a rally in for lauder -- fort myers. it is part of his two-day tour through the state that began friday in boca raton and included a stop. our coverage begins at 11:40 eastern here on c-span. tonight, a look at some past presidential debates starting
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with president ronald reagan debating former vice-president walter mondale from the 1984 debate in louisville, ky. that is followed by a 1992 debate between george bush, bill clinton, and ross perot. then a 2000 debate with vice president al gore and george bush. past presidential debate tonight at 8:00 here on c-span. -- tonight at 7:00 here on cspan. >> cspan is not biased. there are no ads and that is arguably the biggest reason. the cspan video archives. it is one of the most historical are. i like to watch "washington journal," the house of representatives proceedings and c-span 2.
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>> cspan, created by america's cable companies in 1979, brought to you as a public service by your television provider. >> retired military officials discussed the impact of childhood obesity and on health the options in school cafeterias related to national security. they talk about obesity and young adults and how it impacts enlistment in the military. this is half an hour. from the national press club. >> good afternoon, i am the national director for mission readiness, in nonprofit national security organization of over 300 retired generals and admirals who care deeply about the national security of this country. and to support the smart investment in america's children that will ensure a strong
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defense down the road. please take this opportunity to turn off your cell phones. thank you. joining us today are four distinguished retired military leaders and representatives from the department of defense who are concerned with childhood obesity posing a real threat to our long-term national security. let me introduce our speakers our general richard miers, u.s. air force retired, served as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff from 2001-2005. admiral james loy, u.s. coast guard retired, a former deputy to u.s. secretary -- secretary, the security breach lieutenant general norma spike and general pinkney. our first speaker will be admiral willloy. we'll take a few questions from the media.
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and then we will separate one- on-one interviews. thank you. >> good morning to you all. thank you, amy, and thank you for your personal commitment to this cause. if you folks think herding cats is difficult, think of 200 officers. thanks to the leadership of the team, we have made good progress over the last couple of years. two years ago, our initial report entitled "too fat to fight" garnered attention. to set nutritional standards in our schools across the country are in the process of being made into action today. today's report recognizes that our kids of other sorts of things to eat during the school day. it -- this challenge as the government authority affecting the status to set equally strong standards for what kids find in
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vending machines and what they can buy and school stores or what they can find in aligarh cafeteria lines. the bottom line -- there is too much junk food available to our kids in school. we, as parents and citizens, let alone military colleagues, must be doing something about my colleagues will offer their concerns and comment on our report. let me offer a couple of simple facts to get this started. fact number 1 -- 400 billion keller's a jumper sold in our schools every year. ? number two -- if it was all caylee boards laid end to end, it would circle the globe 6 tons. one in four of our children are ineligible to serve in the military services because they are overweight. that is 25%. the next closest disqualify her
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is as much and that is only 4%. fact number four -- it is very easy to link this obesity epidemic to its impact on the national security of our country. we are trying to lead and manage an all volunteer force and 25% home we draw is eligible to serve. fax #5 -- to the people on this stage to have commanded troops in combat and of the physical rigors of military service, this is simply an unacceptable trend and it has to be reversed. none of us want to feel assigned to the recent mission in pakistan and come up short of his mission because he is out of breath. none of us want the rest of the swimmer's jumping out of a coast guard helicopter to be other than totally capable mentally
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and physically to discharge the duties they have and to save the lives of that fishing crew before their boat sinks. that is why we are here today. my colleagues will connect some of the dots for you and allow me to introduce brigadier-general belinda pinckney to provide two more background on this issue. >> thank you and good afternoon. we tend to think about the military in terms of technology but the military's most important asset is a service member be a soldier, sailor, a marine, or whatever. consider this shocking reality -- according to the department of defense, an estimated 75% of young people attempting to come into the military these days are
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unable to join for three key reasons -- poor education, the high-school dropout rate is still very high - they had a serious criminal record or they are physically unfit. i got to experience that firsthand in one of my assignments when i was at a turning post and i was responsible for insuring that those new recruits coming in could actually passed a pt test. we invest a lot of money and time and resources in these individuals. unfortunately, often times, about 1200 of these recruits cannot stay in the military for extended. time. we have invested money and time and the money is normally around $50,000 per recruit.
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i may finance person with the comptroller background and return on that investment is not very good. that is not the only issue. as a result, military service is now out of reach to a lot of young people. a shrinking pool of recruits -- eligible recruits is a threat to national security and we are troubled by the impact this could have on our future military preparedness and success of upcoming generations. this is not a new issue. we have to do something about it because this actually threatens our capability of remaining an all-volunteer force. it is a national security issue. we all know that obesity rates among children have increased dramatically in recent decades and this has affected who can join the military.
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one in four young americans are to overweight to enlist. 5 million young adults between the ages of 17-24 -- being overweight or obese is the number one medical reason young adults cannot join the military. as these alarming figures show, childhood obesity is more than just a health problem. it is more than just an economic issue. it is, in fact, in national security issue. the department of defense has played an important role not only in addressing the obesity issue within the military but also acknowledging that weight issues can play a role in reducing the pool of young adults who qualify for military service. i am proud to introduce our next speaker, secretary who will
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speak briefly on the military concerns and obesity with in the military and among potential recruits. >> thank you very much and to our leadership and mission readiness, thank you for inviting the secretary to address some of the work we are doing. as part of the national prevention strategy, the dot has stood up and we have been tackling this issue pretty aggressively this past year and that half. we believe that children can influence parents and parents influence their children. we're taking this from a holistic standpoint. i am proud to announce that we're moving forward but some progress in our schools and child development centers. we apartment with the usda in adopting standards they have.
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we have been doing the same revamping of menus of our school programs. i would also say that represents a small number. we have about two million military children in the guards and reserve and of that, only 5% are represented. the work that mission readiness is doing what impact the other 95% in those communities. we have developed extension databases for best practices for new programs. our schools are in the process of updating their menus. we're also working with some leaders in cafeteria makeovers and dining facilities. one doctor from cornell university uses the stealth health concept. from a nutrition standpoint, we have developed the nutrition
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assessment tool to comprehensively evaluate heating environment. we have developed the go for green environment and our facilities. we started a color code for foods. green, he frequently, yellow less freedom, and read try to stay away from. the army has developed a initiative called a soldier feeling initiative. for those in need more calories and -- calories and more nutritious, we're promoting healthy options. there's a program which provides tailored fitness and nutrition programs. our exchangeswith in fast food operations on installations to bring in more help the options. new food just opened up at aberdeen proving grounds. these standards
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that we're looking at. we have always been a leader in health and wellness and fitness but realize we cannot do this alone. 75% of our service members and families live off installations. our focus is to work together with our community partners to continue to promote these efforts. at this time, i would like to turn this over to lt. norman spike. >> thanks for taking time from your busy schedules to be with us. let's talk about obesity among our youth. two years ago, we released a report where we indicated that one in four of our 17-24 year olds were ineligible to join the military because of being overweight. the report pointed out the fact that a lot of our poor nutrition is found in our schools.
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the fact of the matter is, many of our children consume about 50% of their calories in school. it is an area we need to focus on. we've launched this report back in 2010 and afterwards, the best majority of members went on record and urged congress and the administration to go after nutritional standards with regard to the meals that were served in school and our leaders in washington surprising we responded very positively in a bipartisan way. they passed the healthy honker kids at which was very impressive. it goes back to 1946 when it started our first federal lunch program and identify that 40% of our young men that were rejected from service or rejected because of being undernourished. today, we face a different problem. we're probably nurse with the
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wrong type of calories, empty calories. the legislation is very detailed with lots of things directed to the department of agriculture. the first step is to improve the nutrition in our lunches that research at school. we're here to report that the department of agriculture is making great progress. the kids out there are eating healthier each and every day. the second step is to take decades old standards and replace them with competitive foods. that is sold in vending machines and a la carte lines. 400 billion calories equals the weight of the uss midway. that is 90 million pounds. that is a lot of empty calories going into our kids. the new standards coming out were not done a smoke-filled
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room. it was done with all the best and brightest out there from the medical community and our schools. the department of agriculture received over 130,000 inputs as far as our nutrition standards. everyone of those inputs is probably not in the legislation, a vast majority are and approved in the pudding is that the department of culture is ready to update and implement new standards. why is this important to retired military leaders? many of our children get so many of their calories at school. nutritional experts out there including the institute of medicine say schools should be a focus. they're not the silver bullet but it should be our focus in dealing with childhood obesity reduction efforts.
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we had mission readiness believe that schools can play a critical role in reversing childhood obesity. and ultimately strengthening our national security. it is a team effort and this is not a spectator sport. this is full contact and it is not only the school's responsibility. everyone has a chance to play and this weatherbee various levels of government, the medical community, our schools, our schools are parents or the kids who are obese are overweight as well as the beverage and food industry. at the end of the day, the next generation of children growing up deserve nothing less. we as the adults in this room 0 than nothing less as for our efforts and commitment through this. ladies and gentlemen, is with great pleasure to introduce the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, richard miers who will talk to us about how we got these figures and what we believe our leaders should do with regard to the next steps to
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check -- tackle childhood obesity, thank you. >> good afternoon, everybody. 400 billion calories -- it is a shocking figure but it is based on good research. on any given day, almost 40% of children in elementary school thru high school, 16 million children, consumes one or more high calorie, low nutrient food attendant at school but not part of the regular lunch program. the students gave over 1 1/3 calories per day from these jongh foods. -- from these junk foods. why is this important? it is because there is no strong evidence that replacing these junk foods, these have to calories, with better food choices can be part of the solution to childhood obesity. in new york city, they stop selling junk food in the school
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and made improvements in the schools and city wide. the rates of obesity in kindergarten -age produced 5.8%. this is in just four years. you can make a difference. other places like philadelphia and the state of mississippi are beginning to see meaningful progress in reducing childhood weight problems. stopping routine selling of junk food at school reinforces the message to children that they need to adopt healthier eating and exercise habits that hopefully will last a lifetime. we cannot succeed in helping them eat healthier foods while selling $400 billion of calories in our school every year. mission readiness strongly supports the fda efforts to reduce junk food at school by adopting gold standards for food sold and school vending machines and snack lines.
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that is why more than 200 retired officers signed a petition for which the usda will update the standards. removing junk food from our school to be part of a comprehensive action involving parents, schools and communities to help make healthy food choices. as you have heard, obesity and our young men and women has a dramatic impact on our security. the armed services must have adequate records so we can meet our 21st century staffing needs. getting chaka out of our schools is critically important to make sure america's child with obesity crisis does not become a more serious national security crisis. thank you. >> thank you very much. we will open the floor to questions from the media.
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yes, ma'am? >> does the military really want to recruit those who cannot withstand the temptation of the candy bar? >> could you explain that a little bit? >> kids are making personal choices and what you are saying is let's take away the temptation rigid >> we're not saying that. there are alternatives. right now, there are not good alternatives in most of the vending machines in schools a la carte line and cafeterias. we want people to make smart choices. with one military members to know the difference between a healthy food and i not healthy
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food. one of the saddest things you have to do as a commander, as people lee -- is to ask people to leave the service because they are obese. it is too late to solve the problem in most cases. it is a sad situation. it is one of the hardest things to do as a commander. they might fit in every other way but they cannot do the mission because they are obese. this is about choice. we want people to make the right choice and have that capability. >> i would add that no way said that the age of 17 and suddenly they are you fit or obese. this is a lifetime of healthy choices and kids need to grow up morning had to make this choice. it is about retreading ourselves --re-train ourselves so we grow up fit and ready to serve the nation in whatever capacity. that is the bottom line. next question --
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>> if you take the food away and the schools and at the same time explain why you are taking the food away because if they go home, what is to stop them from having the same food at home? what is the educational component? >> the most important thing to think of is that parents are the person most important features. we rely on parents to do their very best. parents across the country are doing their very best by and large to try to feed their kids well and healthy good meals. what we're talking about now is parents sending their kids off to school where they are getting loaded up with 400 billion keller's of junk food. that is completely contrary to the message we're trying to send of eating well and exercising. you cannot have it both ways. you cannot tell a kid we want you to choose fresh fruits and vegetables but have a twinkie.
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a whole idea is to walk the walk. we're looking to support schools and during this peri. >> this allows the department of agriculture to find best practices and bring those into schools and share them with the administrators and share them with families so we can have a holistic approach. you are right, temptation is an issue but we're talking about making their right choices, moderation, and we will not wake up one day and will be different. it will be a journey. from 13 years, we went from once stateto 40 states. in 13 years, look what we accomplished in a bad way. it will take a couple with some of the back down. i think the act allows us to do
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just that. cafeteria workers, teachers, parents make the impact on early childhood ages is important. statistics showed your overweight by the time you head 10-15 years, there's an 80% chance you will be obese by the time you're 25. i guarantee you'll chase that problem for the rest of your life. >> speaking of age, i am currently working with our son to raise a young child. he has been doing very well but i have a nephew of that is almost tender. . he is really fighting this obesity issue with his mother who was also an educator. the importance of having the parents work with the school and this holliston approach is a very real. if my nephew does not get control of his weight problem,
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is a smart individual, he will not get the opportunity to serve in the military and he has indicated he wants to. >> let me comment on the notion of choice. the were doctorswanseck is doing at cornell, he says if you bring more fruit in and put it in nicer a ballston move the water up in the sugar drinks in the back, close the ice cream cooler, it has a huge impact on our schools. given the choice, our young men and women will grab the food's better for you. >> with that, want to thank you all very much and we will make our speakers available for one- on-one interviews. thank you very much for coming. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]
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[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> vice president joe biden is in florida today campaigning at a rally in fort myers. to as part of his two-day tour through the state which began friday and poker raton -- in boca raton and included a stop in tamarack. that is coming up in a few minutes on c-span. and you can join us tonight for past presidential debates starting with president ronald reagan debating former vice president walter mondale from 1984. that is followed by the 1992 debate between president george bush, bill clinton, and ross perot in st. louis. then the 2000 debate with vice
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president al gore and then governor george w. bush in boston, past presidential debates, tonight at 7:00 eastern later on c-span. a live shot of the u.s. capitol this morning as congress is in recess until after the november elections. it will meet only in pro forma sessions until then. after yesterday's pro forma session, democratic congressman chris hollen and henry waxman called on congress to resume legislative work. we will look at that. >> we tried on the house floor to raise the fact that we are in session to do minor things when we should be here doing the major things.
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people want jobs and have to reduce the deficit and avoid the fiscal cliff. this has been the most unproductive session in congress in all the years and decades that i have been a member. we have veterans benefits that will not be increased unless congress acts, we have people waiting for the government to do its job and it is disgraceful that we went home without doing the things that need to be done. we left for the election campaign at the earliest time in memory. the could have stayed here longer and we would call the republicans to bring this back so we can to the nation's business. the republicans have been extremely anti-environmental, hostile to a lot of the women's legislation, they have harmed the middle-class, poll last year
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and a half has been simply postures and get all the work that is to be done is not addressing these issues. congress should come back in session. we should be working, not taking this time off. i want to call my colleague chris van hollen. >> thank you, henry. there's a will to get things done. we just had the whistle blower protection bill. the congress is on vacation when it comes to the big issues before it. the president has asked the congress to immediately extend the middle-class tax cuts, tax relief for one under% of the american people up to the first $250,000 in income. 98% of the people get full tax relief along with the overwhelming number of small businesses. 97% of pass through businesses
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would get tax relief. the position republicans have taken is that unless people like mitt romney or companies like being capital get tax relief, nobody in the country gets cat -- tax relief. the president also called upon the congress to take up a jobs bill. that has been sitting before the congress for over one year now. it was submitted last september and calls for a major new investment in our country's infrastructure. obviously, the need to out there if you just look at our aging infrastructure. we have over 14% unemployment in the construction industry so this is a win-win. finally, we have these across the board tax cuts taking place. the democrats in the house proposed a balanced alternative to make sure that those cuts to not take effect or cut defense and non-defense programs in an indiscriminate manner. house republican colleagues said
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they don't want to allow that to happen to their refuse to allow a vote on the democratic substitute. is the most balanced approach offered. it is closing loopholes for big companies and other types of revenue measures. those items we should be doing now. there are three different important parts of the people's business. unfortunately, this republican congress refused to do the work of the people and bring congress back to deal with these issues. we would be happy to try and answer any questions. >> what about libya? >> from the beginning, the administration and the president indicated we will get to the bottom of exactly what happened in libya. we will pursue the attackers and
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pursue the assassins, track them down and bring them to justice. is a murky situation and it is important to get the facts right. that is exactly what we're in the process of doing. is important to get the facts before you decide to jump to conclusions. i was unfortunate -- it was unfortunate early on this process bett -- bett mitt romney tried to exploit these tragedies for political purposes. >> [inaudible] >> i think the administration said from the beginning that the important thing was to get the facts and that is what they are working on now. the president has been abundantly clear that we will track down the killers and bring them to justice. >> [inaudible]
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>> the house passing a bill does not produce will all. it's just the way of giving an excuse to the american people when their taxes go up or there are meatball cuts in these programs for an hour national defence to our domestic programs and medicare providers. this says i am not responsible. but this is not satisfy anybody because it does not solve the problem. the republicans consult the democrats and vice versa but people have to work together. you cannot work together unless we are here working. that is what i think is the point we want to drive home.
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why are we working these problems out? why do we have to wait until after any election to do the people's work? there are too many americans suffering and asking when congress will act like congress. they should pass legislation that will get signs to resolve the issues that need to be resolved. >> the republicans claim to be in favor of middle class tax reform. the president has called gum -- upon the congress to immediately enact middle-class tax relief. let's move forward and we agree on. we agreed to provide extended tax for 98% of the people. republicans have said we're not going to move together on what we agree on a lesser will also to agree to provide a number
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around a big tax breaks to people like mitt romney and this is like being capital. they position quicker. nobody in the country gets a tax relief and people like these get bonus tax breaks. all individuals of all small businesses get a 1% tax break on the first one and driven to thousand dollars. they're asking bourbonnais tax relief for love this of the country. at the expense of their body else. you're serious about reducing the everett koop you've got -- if you're serious of a reducing the deficit, you've got to get series of closing loopholes and tax breaks. >> it has taken just under four
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mustard dill -- deal with this in your negotiations have failed. >> i was disappointed the super committee was not able to get this job done. the impediment of them, as it continues to be now, is the absolute refusal on the part of republicans in the house to agree to any revenue component, part of their deficit-reduction deal. they absolutely refused to ask the wealthy americans to contribute one penny more to reducing the deficit. in our view, the more time goes on, the more their position becomes not only on justifiable but unsustainable. as we get closer to the edge of the cliff, it will be clear to the american people the republicans are saying they are willing to go over the c
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ckli cliff. their position will become clear to the american people and untenable. >> a year ago, republicans held hostage reading our debt ceiling which remain paying our obligations. , ruining our credit rating, are standing around the world, and the president did not want to let that happen. he tried everything he could like a grand compromise. finally, to give the jug on time, congress and the president said we will just have sequestrations this leads to acquisitions on the spending and defense side that would be so awful that the super committee
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and the rest of the congress would do something smart to avoid that. no one would want that to happen. here we are facing the likelihood of all these things going into effect. if super committee could not work out the differences, that does come in the congress should stop. there's very little time to work on this. speaker john boehner said when this bill was passed with sequestration, he was delighted. he wants a cut but no revenue increases. now you hear republicans say they do not want these cuts, or they put in automatic cut/ i was proud to vote against the
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ridiculous bill. you don't put things into lot to say terrible things will hav happened to the country and then close the doors of congress and go home and to clear a recess. you can go home and tell people there is a fiscal cliff we may go over there when they go into another deep recession but we're here to tell you we deserve reelection. that is really quite absurd. the grand compromise never happened, the super committee could not work out its differences. the nature that we put in place a dire one with terrible consequences. >> [inaudible] >> i have a contest that i am taking seriously. i have always taken my
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reelection seriously. i have never had to work as hard because i have a man was not as rich as with bridget mitt romney the way up there is spending millions of dollars. i am campaign mistake -- a positive way about what i have done. i expect to win. >> q. all for joining us. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> the president also mentioned jobs in his weekly address. you see vice president joe biden on the screen. momentarily, we will go to fort myers, florida where he is campaigning at a rally as part of the two-day tour through the state. yester day include a stop in tamarack and boat proton.
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that is coming up shortly here on c-span. coming up during the week, the first of the presidential debates wednesday, october 3. watch and engage with cspan as the presidential candidates meet in this first debate at the university of denver. our live debate preview starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern and at 9:00, jim lehrer of moderates the debate with questions focused on domestic policy. after the debate, your reactions and comments and we'll take your calls and emails. following our live coverage on cspan, cspan radio, and online at c-span.org. while we wait for vice president joe biden, a little bit of this morning's "washington journal."
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is journal @c-span.org. this is the gallup poll we're talking about. it's the gallup annual governance survey. they write while americans tend to lean toward one-party government over divided government in presidential election years, this year finds the biggest gap in preferences for the former over the latter and is a major shift in views from one year ago. if you take a look at the graph that they ve here, dark green are the folks that favor same party at both ends of pennsylvania avenue. the medium green, no different. theight green, different parties. so, for this year, in an election year, 38%, as we mentioned, say that they would preferhe same party control the presidency and congress, while 33% say it doesn't make a difference to them. 23% say that they'd like to see different parties at different
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ends of the block here. as we mentioned, these are findings based on gallup's annual governance survey conducted earlier this moh. the data show an increased level of support for one party rule amid a currently divided government in which the democrats control the presidency and the senate, whe the republicans control the house. this suggests americans are experiencing divided government fatigue. opinions on divided government have fluctuated over the years, when one party conols both congress and the presidency in 2006 and 2010. gallup found near historical lows supporting one party rule. this sugges americans may simply tend to prefer what they don't have or see problems in whatever the current situation is. at least one chamber of congress changed hands in the subsequent elections, and the increase in support for one-party government in 2008 foreshadowed an election that would give the democrats sole control of the presidency and
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both houses of congress. >> we will go live to fort myers, fla. with vice president joe biden campaigning. this is live coverage on c-span. ♪ >> hello, fort myers. it is good to see you all. great to be with you all. god love you.
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all right. [crowd chanting - four more years] >> thank you very much. thank you also very, very much. it is great to be back in fort myers. a manell you what -- should always have two things, a brother with a place in florida and two, a brother-in-law with a pickup truck. [laughter] for the longest time, my brother had a place here in fort myer and i got to come down here all the time. then he sold it. [laughter] and i have not spoken to him since. i'm only kidding. since i've been here a number of times are the last 20 years, --
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do you mind if i take my coat off? thank you. all right, jamie, thank you very much. i thought that the jaime was my sister-in-law. schultze mike -- she looks more like my sister-in-law kelly. maybe we are related somehow. thank you for that introduction and thanks for all the hard work you have on the way and all of you for being here on a saturday morning. i want to get right to it. the fact of the matter is, you know as well as i do, this country is facing the starkest choice for president that we have faced in my memory. now that governor romney has made it official and he has picked paul ryan and i mean this sincerely, these are both good family man and bay --no, i don't
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need your boos, we need your help. i want to be strict review -- -- i want to be straight with you. i have a bad reputation for being strait, telling you what i think. sometimes all of us -- all kidding aside, picking paul ryan, what governor romney did is he has given clear definition to all those big assertions he was making during his primary campaign. he talked a lot about a lot of things that paul ryan is talking about but the war in many details. by picking paul ryan and laying out why he was picking him, he picked paul ryan because paul ryan represents the ideological -- how can i say it -- the
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center of the republican party and the house of representatives. he said that is why he is picking him. now we don't have to guess about what governor running means when he talks about medicare vaguely and social security and education and all these things. it is almost like two incumbents running. paul ryan introduced the republican budget in the house of representatives controlled by republicans that pass. it lays out in stark detail what they would do on everything from medicare to medicaid to social security to education to the debt, across the board. we don't have to wonder anymore. what governor romney means when he says a, b,c, or d. what they are doing is they are not talking anymore about what
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paul ryan and governor running are really four. what we,elling you barack obama and joe biden, are against them agree have done. the just attack everything. folks, the truth of the matter is, no where is it more clear what they would do that and medicare. i will give you a few specific examples to make a larger point. number 1 -- they have laid out clearly, they say, that what barack obama and joe biden did is they in danger of medicare and stole money from medicare. you hear it in everything they say. nothing can be further from the truth. everyone of you in this room on medicare or knows someone who is on medicare knows that since barack obama acted, your parents have than those of you on
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medicare have more benefits than before. [applause] any of you on medicare know that if you have hit the doughnut hole, you are saving $800 per year more than you would have had barack obama not acted. you can now go in for wellness visit, the visit you think you need. you don't have to pay any copiague. co-pay for colonoscopy is our mammograms. [applause] this is just a bold faced misrepresentation. i don't know how they can say that with so many medicare recipients knowing they are better off. the thing most people don't know is that the action the president
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took has actually strengthened the medicare trust fund and extended the life of up to 2024. [applause] i say to those who might say this on television or read a newspaper -- ask yourself, if what mr. romney and mr. ryan are saying about obama and bided our true and medicare, why would the american medical association and doris our policy? why would the american hospital association and most important, why would aarp endorse this? [applause] that have no credibility. on this issue. secondly, what they don't tell you is equally important to what they tell you. they don't tell you what they would do about medicare.
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the first thing they would do if they took the action they are proposing to take were they to win, you would eliminate the new benefits, $800 more for prescription drugs, which visits, it would also move medicare trust fund insolvency to 2016, three years from now. the third the is what they don't want to talk about. they don't want to tell you they are for medicare. they are for a voucher-care. they say it will affect anybody on medicare now. it will not kick in for 10 years. if you are 55 years old, it will kick in. a couple of years ago, the intellectual right laid down a proposal -- paul ryan introduced
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a proposal and the house of representatives saying we will give mom and dad a voucher and that voucher is essentially a chit worth x amount of dollars and will go up there and buy private insurance or buy back into medicare if they want. the problem they don't tell you about is that there is not enough money to get the same coverage. what happens? everybody acknowledges the cbo is an honest broker -- they came along and said it will cost seniors or fifth -- who are 55 years old now, it will cost them an additional $6,500 per year to get the same benefits they get now. [boos] after they were told that, what did they do?
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the republican but a few motive for it. -- voted for it. mitt romney said, were he president, he would sign it into law, signed into law the requirement that you come up with $6,400 a year more for the same benefit. now they say to us, we do not have that plan anymore. guess what. they have a message for the american people. they say, we have a new plan. a new plan that will work better and save medicare. that new plan would cost somebody to 5 years old right now, $60,000 a year more over the life of medicare. the reason i'm bothered to tell you this -- i bother to tell you
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how this is because it goes to motive. can you imagine me voting for a proposal that at $6,400 a year to the cost of medicare or $60,000 over the life of it. the name of a i come from, that would mean the people getting medicare would not be able to hit hit medicare. they would not get nearly the and it is they have now. i do not know anybody who has an extra $6,400 a year for health care when they are seniors. [cheers and applause] can you imagine president barack obama putting forth a plan that says it will cost another $60,000?
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the also sat there at the convention -- it is amazing how they talked about the urgency to get the national debt under control. they had the clock in the back. they said, we realize the president was handed a difficult situation. but he has not done much with it. this is what he has not done. we are ready to act urgently on the national debt. let's not looking at what they say. let's look a what they do. the last time they were in charge, congressman ryan voted 4 and governor romney said he agreed with all of the things that were done last time around. last time around is what caused this national debt. how did this happen? when clinton left, we had a balanced budget in the surplus and things were looking good. what happened?
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what happened? they talk about this great recession that they and knowledge as it is fell from the sky. in september of 2008, all of the sudden this thing happened. as my little granddad -- granddaughter would say, who did it? casper the ghost? they put two wars on a credit card, not paying a penny. the voted for a new entitlement program without paying one penny for it. they added another trillion dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy. what was the result. these are the facts. the result was by the time the
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rain that turned back over to barack obama and me, they had doubled the national debt in 8 years. the fourth, fifth, or six days we were in office, we were sitting in the oval office at sunset, mr. president, looking at his year's budget you are going to have a trillion dollars deficit. he said, i have not done anything yet. [laughter] he said, no mr. president, the budget they passed guarantees no matter what you do, you will have a trillion dollar debt this year in the budget. a trillion dollar deficit, to be precise. these guys talk about the national debt. what date did generated the
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slowest growth in private-sector jobs since world war ii. it gave us this great recession. what they have not told us is what they are willing to do about it. we laid out a $4 trillion debt reduction plan over the last -- next 10 years. we have already passed $1 trillion of it. these guys voted against everything. that only did they say they did not like our plan -- what is your plan? you go out there and you look at the setup. an impressive bipartisan commission. simpson-bowles. paul ryan even voted against the simpson-bowles plan as a member
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of the commission. he would not vote to let it get to the united states congress. why? because they will not voted for a single solitary reduction in the debt if it includes $1 in new taxes for millionaires. that is the fact. i do not need your boos. i need your votes and organization. [cheers and applause] i love how they believe over the national debt. they are so concerned about it. mitt romney, when asked if he had a plan to reduce the national debt if it included $10 in reduction of federal spending and $1 in the reduction of the debt, he said no.
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this is not on the level. they are not about reducing the debt or having a plan if it requires millionaires to pay a cent. what is more amazing is that they have discovered the middle class. and never heard those guys use the phrase middle-class more in their whole lives than they did at that convention. the talk about concern for the name of its i come from. people with four kids and three- bedroom houses. that is a normal neighborhood and talk about how they are concerned about education and health care and they go down the list. my dad used to have an
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expression. whenever we would come up to him and say, joe, i tell you what i value. he will look to my father and say, do not tell me what you value. show me your value -- show me your budget and i will tell you what you value. let's take a look at how much they value the middle-class. they have already passed one in the house of representatives, the one embraced by governor romney. i care about the middle class but i will cut 90 million people off of medicare. a lot of people say, that is all poor folks. a million of those people are seniors. in fact majority had to sell everything they have and
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whatever savings they had to get into a nursing home. the only reason they are able to get into a nursing home is because of something called the dueled eligible. would you expect -- where did you expect those folks to go? they say they care about education. they knocked 200,000 kids out of early education. it took $1,000 out of co grants. we went from 6 million his -- 6 million to 9 million kids that have been knocked out. the only thing helping is between $500 tax credit they are giving you off of your bottom line. they worked that out.
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[cheers and applause] let me tell you this, folks. you have to ask yourself the question. why are they doing it? >> because they have to. there is no way to accommodate the more than $2 trillion in tax cuts for people making a minimum of $1 million a year if they do not do it. it all adds to the deficit. they have got to go out there this is all on the surface of tax cuts for the super wealthy. where i come from, we have one of the highest per-capita incomes in the nation. what i found out is wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor folks. they are just as decent and just as good. they are not asking for these tax cuts. that me give you an example.
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by extending the bush tax cuts for the wealthy, $500 billion goes to 120,000 families. $500 billion. a half a trillion dollars. how can that the right? the average income of those folks is $8.4 million the year. they do not need a tax cut. that what? middle-class families need a handout. they need a bit of help. [cheers and applause] a voted against extending the middle class tax cuts permanently. the voted against it.
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why? because they were holding it hostage to make sure they could continue the tax cuts i just mentioned. it almost sounds unbelievable. on top of the, how romney has another tax cut, costing the economy $1.70 trillion. guess what, it is to hundred $50,000 the year in additional tax cuts to those same 120 -- $250,000 a year in additional tax cuts to the same 120 families. there is something called the tax policy center made up of experts. they did an analysis like they do all of the tax proposals. they point out that if romney in line -- ronnie and ryan were elected and put their tax proposals -- -- romney and ryan
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were elected, it would increase taxes by middle-class families by 200 -- by $2,000 a year. we have seen this before. letting banks write their own rules. we know how it ended. it ended in the catastrophe of the middle class. ladies and gentlemen, i am telling you today, we will not go back to that. [cheers and applase] we cannot go back -- applause] we cannot go back to that policy. the present and i have a different way forward. let me tell you what our plan is. we have created over 5 million private sector jobs.
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5.1 million since we got control. our plan to continue this is made up of four parts. we are going to do it by giving tax breaks to companies that bring factories back to america, not companies that take factories out of america. we are going to continue to knock down those barriers that exist around the world saying no american goods here. we are going to level the playing field. as i go around the world, i travel -- i have travelled 600,000 miles since i have been vice president. people are looking to buy the
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best products in the world. those products have "made in america" stamped on them. if we knock it down, they will buy our products. we are going to cut our oil imports in half by 2020, produce more american make energy from oil, natural gas, clean coal, biofuel. ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people do not understand this. i love to hear them talk about their energy policy, which is thrilled they be drilled. -- drill, baby, drill. there are more oil and gas rigs pumping today that all of the rest of the rigs in the entire rest of the world. that is why we are importing less than we have in decades. that is why we are in the
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position we are moving in. there is and exponentially -- exponential supply of natural gas if done right and real energy available in this country. the voted against it. we doubled the fuel economy standards for cars and trucks by 2025. [cheers and applause] by the way, that will save 12 billion barrels of oil over the period of time. i do not know how they do not think conservation is part of it. they do not know. third, we are going to maintain -- right now, there is a study pointing to the most productive workers in the world. they are american workers. there are -- they are three times as productive as our
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friends in china. ladies and gentlemen, we want to make sure we have the most productive best educated and best trained workers in the world. that is why we trained 1000 more mass and science teachers. we need that. we want to recruit these folks fifth as community colleges, we know we can create 2 million american workers and give them the skills for the high-tech manufacturing jobs of the future. there are 600,000 jobs in america tech doubleday -- in america today. that is why we paired up with community colleges, creating thousands and thousands of peace and pave jawfish if the fate of those fifth -- thousands and thousands of decent paying jobs, but they oppose it. we are going to cut the growth
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of college tuition in half. [cheers and applause] we have already reduced the deficit. in four years, we will reduce it by another $1 trillion. there is an easy way to do this. we have to make some difficult decisions. we have to ask fifth very wealthy to pay more. ladies and gentlemen, we are going to end the war in afghanistan as we did in iraq. [cheers and applause] in the process, over the next decade, save over $800 million fifth we are going to come home with that money and bring taxes down to reduce the debt and rebuild america. [cheers and applause] roads, bridges, schools.
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that will support millions over time. initially, tens of thousands of new, good paying, decent jobs that you can raise a family on. folks, one more thing. in this country, we only have one truly sacred obligation. we have a lot of obligations to the elderly, to the young. we only have one truly sacred obligation. that is to equip and support those whom we sent to war and care for them when they come home from war. [cheers and applause] how many of you either have personally served, have a family member serve, or a good friend who served in either iraq or afghanistan? [cheers and applause]
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ladies and gentlemen, we owe you a that -- a debt that i do not think we can ever fully repaid. we know an incredible debt to those goldstar families. every single day, i have my staff check and i put in my pocket the with-i have been in and out of afghanistan and iraq -- i have been in and out of iraq 20 times. i was getting in a c-17 to fly into jordan. i could hear the muffled sounds of steps outside. it is a basic aircraft. the back pulled down and i could hear a young captain say to me, permission to bring a fallen
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angel aboard. they brought in a flag draped casket. they strapped it to the floor. having a son who's spent a year in iraq, all i could think of was the folks waiting at the other end to receive that body. they refer to anyone who falls as angels. they call them fallen angels. we turned that aircraft into a cathedral. i ask every day, how many
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fallen angels. for every one of those men and women, it has transformed a family. as of today, 6437 fallen heroes. 49,871 invisibly wounded and tens of thousands of invisible wounds. post-traumatic stress, to match the brain injury, thousands and thousands critically wounded who will need extensive care for the rest of their lives. those of you of my generation -- i was not in vietnam -- should know the facts. 50% of the young men and women wounded in this war would have died had they received the exact same wounds in vietnam. the good news is they are alive. the good news is they are home. the good news is, with
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continued, axis of care -- excess of care -- extensive care, expensive extensive care, they can lead productive lives. that is our obligation to care for them, not just now. after the parade are over, after the streets are renamed, we should keep this a priority. we must never forget their sacrifice always keep them in our care and our prayers. a lot of you who assembled here have been through a lot. he did not lose faith. he fought back. as my dad would say, you have got to. there is no quit in america. [cheers and applause]
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ladies and gentlemen, that is why i know i am not the only one who was offended to your governor romney write off nearly half of the country in his famous 47% comments. 47% of the people are dependent. if you read the book congressman rai and has written with two other -- rye and -- ryan has written with two other members of congress, the talk about this culture of dependency without acknowledging that all those people, of those 40%, 82% of those people pay income tax. 10% are on social security and do not have to pay.
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another chunk of those -- over 68,000 -- are in battle -- embattled and do not have to pay taxes on their pay. the country that i know is not a country not willing to take responsibility, not a country that use -- views itself as a victims. romani said it is not his job to worry about those people. half -- romney said it is not his job to worry about those people. half of america. by the way, this is not your fault republican party -- not your father's republican party. when they talk about cultural dependency and american decline, i can honestly say to you, i do
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not recognize the country they are talking about. i do not see it. the american people are so much better, so much stronger, thanks so much more than these guys give them credit for -- so much stronger than these guys give them credit for. how can they have such a inaccurate view of the country. america is neither independent or in decline. it has never been a good bet to bets against the american people. they have never let his country down -- a good bet to that --to bet against the american people. with your help, we will win this election. god bless you all and may god
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protect our troops. thank you. -- ♪
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if ♪
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>> wrapping up a rally in fort myers, florida, vice presidential candidate paul ryan in new hampshire and a higher today. we will be bringing you his events later today. sunday, he will be in iowa. vice president biden will be in ohio on tuesday. tonight, you can join us for
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past presidential debates, starting with president ronald reagan debating former vice president walter mondale. that is followed by the 1992 debate between president george bush, bill clinton, and ross perot in st. louis. then the 2000 debate with vice president al gore and governor george w. bush in boston. past presidential debates tonight at 7:00 eastern here on c-span. and watch and engage with c- span as the presidential candidates meet in their first debate wednesday october 3 from university of denver. a debate previous starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern. at 9:00, "newshour's" jim lehrer moderates the debate on domestic policy. after that, your reactions and comments, calls, e-mails, and tweets live on c-span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org.
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>> c-span is on fire. they just tell you the news straight up here there's no ads. that is arguably the best -- that is arguably the biggest reason. i'm a firm believer that the c- span video archives are truly a gift to the american people. i would say one of the most historical archives there are. i primarily watch the "washington journal," the house of representatives proceedings, and c-span2 for the u.s. senate. >> jake young watches c-span on wow. c-span -- created by america's cable companies, brought to you as a service by your cable provider. now, a look at child care issues in the 2012 campaign. representatives from the national women's law center and child care aware of america discuss the difficulty of finding quality child care they
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can afford. this is hosted by the new america foundation in washington, d.c. >> all righty, good afternoon and welcome to the new america foundation. on behalf of all of us here at new america, we delve into the 2012 election this afternoon and welcome you to this event on what the presidential candidates should be saying about child care and early learning. thank you all for joining us today, and thank you to those who are watching on the internet and watching live on c- span. i want to begin by saying thank you to the casey foundation for its leadership on the issues we will be discussing today and support for this and other events. we believe attention to and investments in quality child care and early learning can make a difference for the social mobility of american families. you will be hearing about some of those advantages this afternoon. lisa and i have posted a number of events previously on child care and early learning, but today, we will talk about what
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the candidates and parties should be discussing because next wednesday night, presidential debates begin. thus far in our discussions with the campaigns and as we have looked at the party platforms, we have seen less attention paid to child care and early learning than we might have expected, both in the presidential and also the congressional races. given the research that points to the impact of attention to the earliest years of life and given the advantages of child care in helping low-income workers, we might have expected, for example, democrats to focus on child care after obama had been criticized for allowing flexibility for states and welfare worker requirements. given the gender gap and the child care many working mothers have been concerned about for some time, we might have expected attention to be paid by republicans. there has been insufficient attention paid by the campaigns in the opinions of many.
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a singular focus on employment in the deficit had taken the wind out of the sales of issues such as these, and, yes, they are critical and linked to jobs and social mobility, both now and in the future. meanwhile, there has been a lot of work going on in the u.s. senate to develop a reauthorization bill on the child care and development block grant, as many of you know. from what i understand, they are making good progress at the committee level and endeavor to present a draft to the public to view in the very near future. some keys have been on raising the quality of health and safety for some kids, even given a resourced-trained environment. that could mean a more modest reauthorization, but still, there are opportunities to be available for kids to be safer, but there will be, of course, a lot of opinions on this legislation when it comes out, and it will be a lot of opinions
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expressed here today, both by our panelists and by you in the audience. something has come up at the senate and has pulled some panelists away from us today, but we have candidates who are here to help us think through what the candidates should be saying in the debates and what whoever wins in november should say when congress comes back and in 2013 about early learning and child care. full biographies on all four speakers are available outside along with reading materials by us and some of our speakers, but we are very pleased to be joined by helen blank, director of child care and early learning at the national women's law center, rob duggar, investing kids working group, and lisa guernsey, director the education initiative at the new america foundation. thank you for being with us today. we will begin with reposing specific questions to each of our speakers that build on the general topic, and after the responses and comments, we will
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open discussion of for your questions. grace, let's begin with you today. i would like your perspective if you would start us off about what candidates should be most focusing on to create an ideal child care system. if you could past the best reauthorization bill in the world, what would you like? how should the system be changed in order to meet the needs of families and children? were the most important changes to the system you would make if you were a presidential candidate? >> i think that is more than one question. >> well, it is. that is right. >> let me just say, it is amazing that the candidates can be so focused on jobs and not have talked about child care. parents who have young children need child care to work. they do not have child care, they cannot work. that is an issue that is interesting at best, that they
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have not talked about child care. here is what i was the candidates would talk about -- first of all, that child care is key to working parents. if we are going to strengthen the economy, we need to have affordable, quality child care. second, children in child-care need to be safe, and the need to be in a setting that promotes their healthy development. we are really not where we should be on that today. >> we have done six licensing studies, and taken a look at laws and regulations to see what states are doing, and what we found is really not ok. the average score for centers in our reports is 87, which i do not want to get into. that would be a failing grade for any class in america because it is out of 150.
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it is about 58%. that would be a failing grade in any classroom in america. we just came out with a report. i do not know if you have seen it. it is called "leaving children to chance." this report can add a couple of months ago and it looked at what is happening in homes. when you look at the top 10 stores, you had no a's, one b's, 4 c's, 4 d's. the 10th state, massachusetts, failed, and they were in the top 10. so all the other states are really not where they should be. you asked -- not when they should be what? let's start with -- i think i heard the first remarks say investment in child care and early learning. i do not think it is child care and early learning. i think for parents and many children, child care is an early learning program. on average, 11 million kids, about 35 hours a week, so for those lucky enough, 1.3 million children in pre-k a couple hours
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a day, a couple of hours of we, that is great and makes a huge difference in school readiness. the rest of the children -- as i said, there's 11 million -- there it and top -- they are in child care somewhere. as we look at our licensing system and see how it is stacking up, it is important to ensure that those teachers, one, our -- are safe. let's weed out the people who do not belong in the business of caring for an unrelated children. we want to see a background check. second, training. minimum training is one of the biggest ways to improve the clock -- the quality of care. that is what guides effective interaction between children and adults. it is approaches to learning. it is safety, like the cpr. health and safety practices, and
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approaching children with different behavioral issues. all of that leads to school readiness. the fact is, when we are looking at children in kindergarten and the later grades and see that they are not progressing the way that they should, nor the fact that they spent five years in a child care setting where maybe the tv was on all day. or maybe the providers did not have any trading, and they did not have any age-appropriate stimulation activities -- maybe the providers did not have any training. background checks, minimum trading -- minimum training. we also want to see inspections. why? inspections help ensure that when a state does have standards -- we all know the federal law does not have any minimum, so there's nothing to check on, but when each state does have a policy of inspecting, that they look to see if the children are safe.
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the should be done on a regular basis, at least once a year, maybe more often, because otherwise, any standard does not matter. in california, they do inspections once every five years. in montana, three to five years. in pennsylvania, once every six. michigan, once every 10. the law calls for an effective enforcement, but if everybody -- if anybody thinks inspection every five, six, 10 years is effective, i expect a little more than that. we are looking basically to raise the bar. we spent a lot of time working with parents. parents make assumptions. they assume a license means something. they assume there are basic protections for children. they assume that somebody is looking out to sea how the program is doing -- looking out to see how the program is doing. but we know the gap between the logical assumption of parents
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and what is actually happening in state policies is huge. the parents we have been working with throughout the country have stories to tell. i am hoping that it will make the candidates think twice -- what are we doing? i was in alaska two weeks ago. a 19-month-old toddler died on the playground. she was strangled on some playground equipment. when the grandmother came to pick her up, the report was all the staff were running around to find somebody who knew cpr. one thing -- they had to rush to find somebody who knew cpr? why is it not a requirement that every staff person working with children in a child-care center is required to know cpr? i mean, a crisis happens and they have to rush around to find somebody? i will tell you, it is because state law requires someone on the premises know cpr. you rush around to find somebody when a bad thing happens? that is not ok.
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would it have made a difference for that child? i don't really know, but i know we have examples from our parents who had some really tragic things happen, that the status quo is not ok. until we talk about what is really going on out there, it is hard to get the attention of policymakers to see that the status quo is not ok. we really need to fix it. we really need to do something about it. we are really hoping that this reauthorization and bipartisan bill -- which we had a printing press and a magic wand, but unfortunately, we do not. it is a road map to quality, and it starts with safety. that is the bottom line. no child to be in a child care setting -- regardless of income -- i have not even started talking about children on subsidy in what they have access to -- but all children regardless of income should be safe, and parents should not have anxiety when they are at work about whether or not their child would be safe. these parents had to learn the hard way through a tragic situation -- hopefully, we can do something to prevent that
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from happening. i am not exactly sure what else you are looking for, but one is safety. two is maybe if we required some minimum training and start on that road equality, we can do things that make a difference, like technical assistance, follow-up training, to make sure that someone who gets training actually uses that training effectively, either in a home setting or child-care center. we are not quite there yet. we have secure agencies throughout the country. they train about 600,000 providers a year. they also work with a lot of providers and technical assistance to make sure that the training sticks and makes a difference, but i think we need more of it. so we are looking to try to see if the cornerstone of quality in a child care setting is the training and education of the workforce, if we can up the bar
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on that. i think there's a lot that can be done. i think that, as far as quality is concerned -- you have about 28 states with a quality rating system. that is a really good thing. it is tough to be a parent. what questions do you ask? what do you look for? i think every parent wants the warm person who is going to be friendly and nice and you can click with because you want somebody who will love your children, but at the same time, the expectation should be if you are in a business with children, there should be other criteria. you should not have a history of violent offenses, so you would be no harm to the child. you should have some minimum training so that what you are doing can nurture the children and, hopefully, put them in a situation better ready to
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succeed when they start school. unfortunately, as i said, what we have seen from our studies is that is not happening. i want to end with one other thing, which is we also have done a report on affordability, and it is called "parents and the high cost of child care." we are not where we should be on the quality and care and the safety of care. where we are right now, it is not affordable. how can it be that there's so much improvement to be done to be where we need to go on this road map? parents are tapped out. it is not affordable in many states. in some states it is more than college. how can that be? that is the reality.
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we will have to look at alternative ways to find child care and early education. parents are tapped out. the quality out there is not what it should be to protect the development of children. how will we deal with that? this is not a party issue. it is to some extent, -- it is not a poverty issue. it is to some extant. if you have more than one child, it is almost impossible. you want a license market to mean something. you do not just one children to be safe. -- not just want children to be safe. that should be included. there should be a road map to quality. you want the children to succeed.
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that is our vision of what we would like to see in the reauthorization bill. >> i know we will have a chance to go deeper in question and answer as well. i have four kids under 6. i have asked of children under 6. i appreciate you raising those issues. let's say you will plan the system and it will be your opportunity to work on the reauthorization. what would you put into the bill? i will hold my second question until you finish that one. i am very interested in today versus the 1988-1996 time period vs today. there was a campaign work bush 41 talked about child health care in his campaign in a way we have not seen since then, i
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would argue. in 1996, you had a campaign that was what it was an environment that led to some reauthorization or updates in the law of 1996. things were different. presidential candidates ignored some of these issues. there are relevant and recent examples where conditions were different. am i right? am i reading some of the historical tea leaves in terms of the? what do we need to do to return to focus on these issues similar to what we saw in the past? was that the second question you thought i was going to ask you? >> yes. >> good. >> i am going to try to present a fuller picture of where we are and what parents and providers
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are facing. david, i really appreciate the opportunity to be here on behalf of the national women's's law center. in my very long career, i have always heard that it is not the right time for children and we do not have enough money to do what is right. when we were working on ccdbg, someone took me to lunch and said, how dare you ask for $2 billion. especially when have a big deficit. i do not think that the lack of resources should be the starting point for our debate on the reauthorization. let's be clear --for low-income children to be in a high-quality early childhood settings that will improve the chances for a better life outcomes, that has to be increased investments to support children, parents, early childhood educators, and drug care programs. that is not impossible, -- and child care programs. that is not impossible.
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even in this environment, especially given the strong case for investing in early childhood. child care assistance is a two- fer. trust your assistance by helping families work and go to school can also lead to effect son the chil's home -- aspects of that child's home environment. both of these environments, both outside the child's home and the environment inside the child's home can have a significant impact on children's development and pay off for our country, both for this economy and for our future economy. despite the expanded awareness about the importance of better quality for young children, you hear that from our other panelists, there is an important for parents to work. we have still not on the will to ensure that all of our children and their families have the early childhood programs that they need.
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we owe our young children and our families who are trying desperately to work. we owe them better. we need to do this for the sake of our nation of's economic success. early childhood does not have an extensive funding stream. the bulk of support comes from parents. we cannot build high-quality system was sick and garments with parents picking up the majority of the costs -- we cannot build high-quality education and systems with parents picking up the majority of the costs. you have seen -- they are stretching themselves as far as they can. we can learn much from pass 3 authorizations. history teaches us a lot regarding the relationship of type of assistance to work,the challenges of winning the support necessary to support high quality care and the recognition that new investments are integral to successful the authorizations. there are three reauthorization is that are relevant. discussions around the 1993 operation began in the spring of 1986.
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we recognized it could be a presidential campaign issue. in the midst of planning the child care campaign that resulted in ccdbg, we took time out -- and i remember these discussions --it resulted -- we took time out. we walked with congress in the reagan administration in the complementary opportunity presented by a debate on welfare. they all agreed that the child care assistance was key to help grow and keep a job. this led to trucker assistance -- led to an entitlement for mothers receiving will care and you're a transitional child- care assistance for mothers receiving welfare and a year of transition of child care. then removed the discussions around ccbg.
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the child-care entitlement for a substantial group of the most vulnerable of our low-income mothers was in place. we were able to focus on making sure that women need job for assistance as well. we need to build up the quality of chawed care. the bipartisan bills are introduced with a significant number of co-sponsors included federal standards, because in the end, the standards that govern the funding and the company's resources that need them are the key drivers of quality. however, there were competing voices in politics and helping children succeed and federal and state flexibility. they join the first bush administration to argue for flexibility. as a result in order to move forward, the quality was set aside.
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it was significantly cut back. federal standards were eliminated early in the process. a compromise on standards for the weaken the final negotiations of the bush administration. it resulted in a provision that states only have to set minimal safety and education standards. congress was clear from early debates that certain relatives receiving funds should be exempt from the standards. funding was also cut back. the bill was enacted after a three-year debate. we were happy. it was interesting and not included in the deficit- reduction bill. -- enough that is was included in that deficit reduction bill. it represented significant compromises, but was not enthusiastically received by the states, putting them on a stronger path. a director in tennessee testified -- this summer at the child-care hearing, it made a big difference for parents and providers. let's turn to 1996. the debate was very basic. congress decided to end that child care entitlement at the
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same time they're ending welfare as we know it. however, advocates joined by governors and congress and the clinton administration, agreed that funds and a doctor was necessary if low income women were facing increased work requirements -- -- in child care was necessary if low-income women ever facing increased work in garments. ha -- requirements. it was absolutely clear and in that debate that most of the low income women been expected to work or not going to earn enough to pay for child care. this is still true. the battle over quality was eliminated. the governor leading the
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welfare discussion wanted to completely eliminate minimum standards on the quality set aside. we won bipartisan support to maintain both, but we lost the requirement. there was no meaningful discussion of improvements over those two years. with these new funds, and additional funding later in the clinton administration, states made improvement. they raised wages for providers. they helped children go back to school. some hired new licensing inspectors. than funds began to stagnate. on the one in six children eligible for welfare not received it. it is likely declining. it is likely we will be reaching only 1.5 million children. this is the lowest number of children served since 1998. the need for help is not dropping. the coverage of children who need quality care is there. according to a study that was
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done in 2011, families in 37 states were worse off than in 2010. states are making solomon at choices. they ask parents to contribute more. do they. child-care providers lower rates? -- do the ask dr. providers -- child care providers for lower rates? the number of mothers receiving assistance is reclining -- declining with time limits. many children are leaving in -- living in deep poverty. only three states. providers of the federally recommended levels. a member of that to 22 states in 2001. six reports that the pay higher
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rates for high-quality cases. the reimbursement rates, even at the highest quality level, is before that 70 percent of current market rates. quality rating systems isn't interesting way to help parents understand but higher-quality care. they're not real if parents do not have the money to access high-quality care. if providers to not get the support they need to improve their settings. a families receiving a child care assistance because of low rates might have difficulty finding any job your option in their neighborhoods. dr. centers are shutting their doors in low income communities -- child care centers are shutting their doors in low- income communities. i urge presidential candidates to listen to the moms and the providers. in new york city, three- quarters of families on the waiting list reported that this
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was negatively affecting their children. my child is six months of your old. -- six months old. they find a very challenging to worked. in north carolina, one in four families have lost or quit their jobs while waiting for talked assistance. a minnesota parent without assistance expend the consequences. "i lost that job due to babysitting problems. of a conscientious about minding the child care rations -- a arrangements." lower-income mothers live on the edge. they face many challenges. child care assistance is a lifeline. there are countless other stories of mothers who benefit from assistance. if we continue to dismantle our
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fragile and early talk could system in place, or place new demands on it without new resources, child care and families deserve every authorization that infuses the significant new funds to enable more children to have child care assistance and ensure that they are in high quality settings that awful them -- are for the new learning experiences. we will reform accountability to count on new investments to support needed reforms. the reform should include making the child care assistance more accessible and more logical for parents and paying child care providers on time and offering continuing child care settings. they should improve the child care standards that we fund. teachers need to gain the
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education and skills they need to meet the standards and make sure our children are in safe settings. we have to design these reforms not with one particular type of care in mind. we have to recognize the various types of care that families rely on. many low-income mothers work non-traditional hours and work shift hours. they may have to rely on informal care. we need reforms of work for all families, including these mothers. what is different now is that mothers poured into labor force in the 70 -- 1970's and 1980's. at the time, there was not much of a trout care infrastructure to help these mothers. newspapers around the country had front-page stories that kept going on and on about families challenges in finding affordable child care.
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it was on the nightly newscast. i was on seven newscast on the same night. -- several newscasts on the same night. both presidential campaign candidates had positioned on top care. mother was helping us out at the time. this year it is challenging. there are many issues that affect families on the agenda. it is a different time. but it is not different for the parents and children who need a reliable child care. we cannot find the resources to invest in child care.
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-- we can find resources to invest in child care. we need to help our families work under our young children in this economy right now. we can do it. in community after community, you go to meetings and ask mothers, what is on your mind? what are the most important issues? low-income, middle-income, all mothers, they all say that the have the worst time finding child care. it is time that we do something about it. we have been having this debate for a long time. it is time that we do what is right by our kids. thank you. >> thank you. really great. we are going to turn to rob. i will ask you to focus on
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the very picture from your experience, if you would. how would you make the case to the country that these issues are important? how would you persuade the country to make investments in early child care? i know you care deeply about it and the folks in the room as well. >> thank you. i get grace and helen. we go thorugh the issues of safety. it is hard to find places where a young child can be safe. that is really the bottom line for that process of taking care of children. the struggle has been going on for many years. i thank you, helen, for the commentary. it is very helpful to hear how this debate has been waged in years past with some victories and some losses, but never going as far as it needed to go.
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for me as a finance, business, economics professional, and as a student of history, this campaign is a lot like the 1960 race between kennedy and nixon. it is like the campaigns in the early 1900's when women's right to vote was a central civil rights issue of the country. it is like the campaigns in the 1840's and 1850's and the election of abraham lincoln when the issue of slavery or freedom was a central issue of the country. those local elections before the revolution were similar in
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the way that they cast the issue as being one in which there is a status of british citizenship and american citizenship. the gap had to be closed. the reason i would bring this up as a candidate -- my platform would be to close at the civil gap. all of us of being in this room being somewhat government professionals know that budgets are not really about money, but civil commitments. budgets are architectures of all of the civil commitment to have made to each other as citizens over many generations. the way in which these commitments a range from national security to air traffic control and to food safety, all of these commitments accumulated year after year very slowly and were reaffirmed and reshaped in the appropriations and budget legislation. families, people came to trust
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these commitments. they shaped their lives and businesses and a family plants around these commitments. now we discover that these budgetary architectures are not sustainable. what is in this is another statement, which is that the architecture of civil commitment is not sustainable. when we say, if there is a budget crisis, we're not saying that there is a lack of money. we are saying that the fabric of the civil commitment that holds a society together is being torn apart. people no longer know how they relate to each other. business people no longer know whether contracts can be enforced. courts are operating more slowly. can you get a contract in force? there is a relationship was
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civil commitments that is a fragment. uncertainty is the rising. trust is falling. investment is falling. economic growth is slowing. unemployment is rising. that is where we are. now in this, it is a civil crisis. there is something in it in which there is a group of individuals who are in essence budget advantaged. there is a category of people who are budget disadvantaged. just as the british citizens and u.s. citizens had to close that gap. jsut as there was a gap between men and women in boating, and took 40 years -- voting and it took 40 years to close that gap. just as there was a devotee minority and majority in the access to education and facilities in the 1950's, that
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gap was closed as well. it took in every single case aggressive action and sometimes violent action to close out those civil gaps. what is the civil back in this story? the gap is between a group of people or families who is a circumstances are paid for by deficits are burdensome to familes and future children. i am trying to convince you that it is not an economic problem at all, but a deeper structure -- it is a civil rights problem. it is wrong and probably constitutionally wrong to
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create deficit structure which results in tax necessity, which reached out and grab the labor of future children without their representation. that is a form of kind of fiscal slavery. you have reached a and grabbed their labor to spend it now -- reached out and grab their labor to spend it now. the budget advantage are those who -- disadvantage are those who might get more than their share of benefits. there is one sector of the economy if you are one of the benefiting the sectors of the
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economy. it might be age and income. these categories of people whose life styles and living standards are supported by these deficits, and they represent the gap. that is why it is difficult for us to close it. it is extremely difficult for us to talk about it. if i were a candidate, i would be talking about the solution to the civil problem. it is very difficult to solve a civil problem without an economy that is doing better. one of the great disappointments to me -- perhaps i can lay it on my own children because i am not sending items to "the huffington post" and
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elsewhere to explain that when the auto industry ran into trouble, it cut $80 billion in roughly six months. the financial -- it received $80 billion dollars in roughly six months. how big is the sector that produces young adults? can you imagine an economy without young adults? if you want to spend in this economy, the young at sector, you never produces your cars. the auto sector. you know that the financial sector handles your accounts. you know who produces the food on your table. that is our cultural sector. autos is 1.5%. finance is 7.5%.
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how big is the young adult sector? 10.5%. it is without doubt the most important. depending on how you look at it, it is the largest sector in the economy. it is labor-intensive. you spend money in that sector, you will create jobs. you cannot imagine an economy without young adults. you know you have to invest in them. all of you know the returns on investing in kids. i will not go back through that. what i will say is that we as a community in have failed. i take this as a burden on to myself.
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we, as a community, have failed to communicate to politicians that the young sector is as big as it is. we as a sector have not understood our situation as being one in which if you deprive a child early in its life of adequate nutrition, you are denying and diminishing its ability to access its civil rights under the declaration of independence and the constitution. that is as grave a civil-rights violation as any we have talked about in our 200 + years as a country. we have still to do that. we fail to talk about the budget as what it truly is, a civil crisis. how can we change that? how could we change it? for one thing, we need to get much more aggressive. we have to put in state capitals in all 50 states to
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5000, 10,000, 20,000 people who are involved in raising kids on top of the steps and saying to members of state legislatures, you will vote for kids or you will not be in office. if the next guy does not vote for kids, we will kick him out as well. if you do not think it can be done, think about the basic numbers. every congressional district has about 600,000 people in it. the number of people involved -- the about 1000 child services sites. there are about 50 people associated with every one of those sites. 50,000 people. those 50,000 people can turn every single race for the house of representatives in this country. every single one of them.
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the question is whether this community is prepared to get a militant. is it prepared to do what the founders of the country did in that 17 '70s? are we prepared to do what was done in the 1960's? are we prepared to do with the civil rights act does this were doing -- activiists are doing? >> great. we should take the script and make it available. we're doing that here, and i am very grateful for it. lisa, let's build on that. rob made an eloquent case on our national priorities as they relate to our human capital producing and the next generation. as we think about the earliest years, maybe we can link that years of early education to education reform going on in our country and what is right on
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in the election. both candidates are talking about education as it relates to either affordable college or k-12. they have not mentioned early learning child care as much as they would like. but this into context in some of the things that have talked about. how does early learning fit into k-12 reform and other pieces of education? how should it? >> thank you. following the amazing and deep comment we heard, a lot of my remarks are practical and pragmatic. i want to mention how important it is to be thinking about quality and access and investment and understanding this as the heart of the social contract that rob was describing. we have a paper out that the revisions what education and
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learning opportunities and can look like for young people and for their families. i think that is certainly the place to start and talk about this. how to connect with the presidential candidates should be saying about child care and early learning, and what they are not saying, i was going straight to the obvious connections they could be making in our education debates and how much we need to start connecting these issues to what we are already talking about in terms of schools and investing and improving our schools. the first thing i want to make clear is that i think in the wider world, and the public is not as much recognized. child care are early learning programs.
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children, from the very earliest ages in infancy, are learning and developing social, cognitive, physical, motor skills. all that is happening in the environment that they are in. they should be in environments that are giving them the space to learn how to learn. that is the primary thing that we need to be able to teach our young -- to learn how to learn. we need to understand the settings that these children are in, in their homes and in maine child care centers -- and in child care centers.
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those are learning environment for these kids. once we learn that, we have to break out of the mind set back education starts at age 6. we have to break out of that and recognize the huge opportunity that is latent in these early settings to develop the next-generation. we need to develop those adults are innovating in jobs that are more than fair wage work. i think both presidential campaigns are missing an opportunity to make this connection to education reform conversations. these changes are not going to
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happen until we look at what is happening to these children in the first six years of life. until we can recognize how far behind we are in investing in those children and in their families and supporting their families -- i do not think we can stop at kindergarten. what is kindergarten looking like? how are we thinking about science research as it relates ha to the child's first grade year and all the way up through young adulthood. how are we understanding their capacity to learn? are we harnessing the bat? i went to get quickly three examples -- how are we
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harnessing that? i want to give quickly three examples. when i your the debate in the newspaper, they missed it again -- when i read the debate in the newspaper, i am surprised at how they missed it again. when the candidates are talking about middle class families, they have in the mind about the children. who are taking care of the children all the parents are working? are the professionals who are with them, are the able to ride learning opportunities -- provide learning opportunities and engage them to explore the art world and connect with them and a cherished their curiosity and help them build upon that? are the professionals in these settings able to give that to children? do they have the training to do that? are the introducing them to art, music, math, storytelling? any other opportunities that can allow them to develop language opportunities and how
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to express themselves. our elected officials and those who want to be elected officials and need to recognize that many children in this country are not necessarily getting those opportunities. though only way to fix some of our larger educational problems is to be looking at what those kids are experiencing it in the first five or six years. that is the first one. secondly, in the education space, there is a lot of talk around turnaround schools and teacher quality. that is a big part of the education debate in this country. those are issues the obama administration has focused on for fixing failing schools. he has a laser focus on effectiveness in teaching and how to improve our teacher work force.
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the romney campaign has expressed interest in improving the schools through a different avenue by promoting more choice for parents. neither side is recognizing that those reforms if ever put in place will be far less successful if children are not giving the solid foundation in the first place. children growing up in the impoverished conditions have little access to the education that they need in those younger years. those reforms would not go anywhere. we need to get serious about the problem we are talking about today. schools need to teach those
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basic skills, but we really need our children in environments where there are focused on innovative thinking, flexible thinking, deeper knowledge in multiples subject matters. wouldn't it be smarter, a far better use of our public funds of thinking of them as education dollars? are investments a country in, wouldn't it be smarter to use those investments to be from loading and make sure that we are setting these children to succeed in the first placed? third, strengthening family life and values. this is an issue that comes up a lot for presidential candidates. i do not doubt at all that the candidates want to make sure that families are supported. we need to have a very serious question about how to do that for families who have young kids today.
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there was a comment made by romney during education and nation segment on nbc this week. children might be best off if one parent stayed at home with them. i think that is a conversation we need to have, but let's get serious about what our early learning environments children need and be flexible so that parents do not feel that it will only be from 9-5. really think about how these early learning environment can work for today working families. those are a few things i would want to put out there on the table. we're missing an opportunity to connect a child to education with our country. i would be curious to see if we could maybe stir the pot a
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little bit and get more of a conversation going. >> thank you. we turned toward our audience. is there any immediate response that you would like to pose to the panelist? we have a little bit of time. we will start with questions. chris will go around with a microphone. please identify yourself and your organization. ask a brief question so we will have time for folks to respond. >> quick question. i agree with everything that was said. i wish we had sort of settled on quality and investment 20 years ago. i say that because i think one of the issues that candidates
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are facing that i would love to hear a response from is -- how do we make investments in child care when you as birth rates are at an all-time low -- u.s. birth rates are at an all-time low? is it more that we have a child care crisis or do we have a care giver crisis? those same families are we talking about to have young kids are also faced with caring for their parents as they become of age. we have a care giving crisis. i would like to hear a response about that. >> helen and grace. that is a very good and penetrating question. >> what is interesting is someone said that you need to pass this quickly because
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someone will be sold. --old. 1 in 4 children under six is poor. we have this growing number of children who are poor. we know their mothers have to work. poverty is extremely damaging. we know that they need high quality, learning opportunities. another issue that i would tell romney about is that we have a huge number of children growing up in single-parent families. especially for african-american families. those single mothers have no choice but to go to work. i think unpaid leave is a critical component in any child could strategy. the most we would have is three months probably. we need high-quality, early childhood opportunities. we also need to support care givers of young children. what is ironic is that women are those caregivers. they will need the kind of
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child-care arrangements that make sense. they might need chalker assistant at night and on the weekends -- childcare assistant at night and on the weekends. we'll need a flexible and complex solution. i still think it is a major need. with the middle class families facing more economic strains with the costs of college and housing, they need assistance. they are not really happy about. >> grace > >> -- grace? >> i think you hit it right on the head. we have spent some resources on the elderly. there is social security. we all contribute to social security. elderly people have some minimal protection.
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when they are in a nursing home or assisted nursing facility, there are minimum protections. background checks for people who work with the elderly. make sure they are treated ok. i would not call that a leader learning area, though some of them to have later learning opportunities in those facilities, but at least there is recognition that the elderly need to be treated in a safe and decent environment. for children, there is no minimum. you can see that states are all over the map. children are left to their own devices. parents leave them on their own. when you go to the grocery store, you have a choice -- you
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have a choice when you pick out vegetables and when you pick out me. you put things in the cart. someone who knows the quality of the meat and fresh vegetables that you might want to buy, some and has set a bar out there. you make sure that there is some and a mom -- minimum so you will not get harmed. we do not have that for child care. we need eyes and ears in a field that complicated. we care about school achievement and closing the gap and making progress when children are in school and increasing high school graduation rates, all with an
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eye to economic growth in the country. we need to look at the early learning settings. this is a crisis. we are at their. pay attention to the dentist in this country -- youngest in this country as we do to the oldest. i certainly think it is a great deal more than we spend on the youngest. in 1996, i was pregnant with my second child. 16 now. that is three generations of children 0-5 who have gone through this cycle. where are we? we have made some progress, but as far as the road map to equality, we are not there. how many more generations will it take before we make sure that children are in a safe
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setting and recognize the link between the setting at the start in for five years leads to the ultimate consequence of were the are and how they succeed when they get to school? i would say that i agree that we need to do something about it. >> rob? >> what was said illuminates the question completely. one of the gaps that has to be closed is the generational gap, in civil terms. i had the pleasure of being on the board of directors in an organization that should be at
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this table. i went off the board last year. typical of the things that i do, what the board is recognized as one of the 50 best nonprofits in the country. they have done a lot of work on this issue of older and younger. what they find is that shared sights help improve the educational performance of children. i am 68, or i will be. do i look like i can take care of a kid? i am the oldest of the baby boomer generation. the youngest is about 54. the "old" that you're talking about is a relatively small
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portion of the population. the one they should be focusing on it is between me and age 54. the age of many active business, political leaders. what we want to do is get these people to recognize that they have this obligation because the birth rates are falling, so to speak. if gdp is a function of capital, labor, technology, land, and so forth, in that capital component is gdp is dependent upon the production of young adults who are educated and globally competitive and fun to be around, young adults.
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18-year olds. if you do not have them, you will not be competitive. you will kind of drift like greece or japan. what is thrilling to me is the challenge of the -- becoming militant over the requirement that baby boomers have a responsibility. even in their own self interest, they should be doing but the constitution says. some of you might notice that i glanced at my cell phone a bit earlier. i wanted to make sure i have the wording right. the constitution says that we ordain and establish this
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constitution to preserve the blessings of liberty. they could have put a period there, but they didn't. we preserve the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our prosperity. that is what the constitution says. the constitution of the united states contemplates multiple generations as having civil rights. a society systematically depriving its young of nutrition, health care, strong parenting or caring, housing, and the other things that are necessary to be successful in life, and conception to kindergarten. that is when 85% of the brain is formed.
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to deny it at that age means that you forget about l-12 reform. we have falling high school sat scores. you have underinvested in kids 15 or 20 years ago. if the blessings of liberty and all the pursuit of happiness means, these things require education, particularly in a modern era. to deny a child at the earliest point in his life means that you'll never get on track. that is profoundly, aggressively, as genocidically a civil rights violation. as a student of history, someone who has traveled all over the world, i see no way for
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this community to achieve what it seeks to achieve on behalf of children accept by becoming much more militant. >> powerful. let's start taking questions. we have one question over here. we will take heed of questions over here. >> i have so much to say. i will avoid doing that. i would like to highlight that i came wearing i different hat and now i will talk about regulatory administration for child care, adult care, and child welfare. i came from california. the department of community care licensing in the state of california overseas all of
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those presidential child care and adult care settings. they are responsible for inspecting more than 100,000 facilities in their state. they do get around every five years, but they do respond to complaints much more regularly. just to throw that in the mix. i am really happy that you mentioned education nation this week. i think that a new america and others could put the comments made by the candidates in that environment, side by side, we would see a stark contrast in their civil commitments. i think that would be a very worthwhile thing to do. finally, up some of the
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candidates you have not talked about, and i did not expected they would be so much about licensing, but we have a whole set of candidates running for office right now in state legislatures. it is within state legislatures that regulation are enacted and improved -- approved. i would like the panelists' connections from the presidential candidates and down the line on state-based rights are connected. >> there are many things going on at the state level that are very good. that is a powerful question. we will go down the line. >> thank you. i with their early to alter education organization.
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you have spoken strongly to the need for reform. one of the things i am struck by is the why -- why our campaigns not talking but investing in kids and making a priority of the crisis in caregiving that we have in this country? greece, your organization puts out excellent reports. -- grace, your organization and put out excellent reports. parents are tapped out for the resources. lisa, you mentioned of k-12 world. that is also a place where resources are also restrained. is there a reason why campaigns are not picking this up as it is related to the resource issue and the need for prioritization? >> very interesting. we will keep on going down the
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line. >> my answer is similar for both. i think a big part of the why has to do with the money question and where the resources are going to come from to make this possible and really invest in young kids and families with young kids. there is a chill over having any conversation about innovation over new initiatives or even consolidating programs in a way that leads to better outcomes, but would still require some -- those kinds of
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conversations are dampened by the larger cloud that is hanging over everything right now when it comes to trying to figure out if there is going to be any more government revenue to use to do this. what we are doing is thinking, ok, everyone is pulling out on this. the debt question, because of the election, then november 7, it will start back up. but my worry is that if we are not having these conversations now, that we will not be prepared for when they become important in the near future. i was struck by what was said earlier. in the past, there have been conversations about trouble with the deficit, and yet there was the ability to think about it and children. i am now grappling with that. we are in a place where we have
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tried to get them to think about it in a broader way, because we are seeing a shrinking pie. that is a big problem to put out there. i think that at the state level, there are -- we are in a situation where, because of the learning challenge grants coming from the obama administration and some states to on their own have really innovative and dynamic leaders who are putting these issues to the forefront -- at least some states are moving fairly quickly in a shrinking environment to be focusing on quality and been about more disadvantaged children having access. setting up a stage so the children will have access. but now we have a have not situation depending on what state the child has been born
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in, what kind of community, down to the zip code issue they talked about some much. educational opportunities depend on zip code. we are in the same place when it comes to young children, opportunities for their families, opportunities for early learning environment. there is more to say on the state front. i would encourage you to look at a previous event that david and i held, that is online, the video is archived. i will give time over to some other folks. >> we will go to grace. >> some great questions. i think everyone in the room should think about how we can change this. number one, eric, to your point, why are they not talking
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about it? because they do not have to. they can get away with it. nobody is calling them. we are not standing up and saying, fixed out care, do something about it. we see a connection. to your point, do something and will find people who do. until we find people and stand up in an articulate and make that point -- you cannot do it at one rally. it is every day. unless there is a civil commitment for every day to stand up and raise his ability on this issue, then they can get away with it because they can. second, i think this is to your point. why is nothing being done? congress is the most polarized congress in years. i think there has to be a message from voters who sent them there to review policy,
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make sure what is happening is effective, that we are headed in the right direction, to reach common ground when necessary, and that compromise is not a dirty word. as long as congress is allowed to be polarized, taking a political positions rather than good public policy decisions to promote families and assist children and make connections with the rest of us do, then you get what you get. i hope the next congress will look at the finding common ground and doing right by families with children. the american public says, enough of polarization. we are sick of it. keep the political press release, give it to somebody who wants it. not us. we are done with it. compromise is not a dirty word, and finding common ground, incremental change.
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that is how it happens. what are we doing about it? i heard a question -- i think that we in our report, i hope it comes across this way, we are looking to find the most effective way possible to ensure that there can be inspections on a frequent basis, a regular basis, to insure that children are in the best setting they can be in. building on that, we are working to get a nation-wide network of parents who will stand up and make these points. i agree with helen. we should be ashamed that only one out of every six children in this country receives assistance. all the studies show that low- income children have the most to gain from access to high- quality care. what i also know is that this is not a low-income family issue. this is an issue -- child care
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is an issue for all families. all families with working moms, that is 2/3 of moms of children under 5 in the work force, that is an issue for all of them. when i talk to my neighbors, everybody talks about how to find care. how to afford it. once you get it, then you get questions of quality. what is good enough? what can i live with? we are working to change that. it is great to talk to each other, but you have to talk to policy-makers, absolutely, at the state level. in every state capital. not just at rally day, but every day. also each out to congress. we have about 13,000 parents in our network. we have about 80 parent leaders leave and working with to bring to d.c. and have some training.
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they think, laws, they're the experts. we say, you parents, you are the experts. we need a confidence builder to accept that. you do not think so. you think, the congress and staff, they are the experts. they are, but they know it from a different lens. they know it mostly from hearing about it from you. parents need to come together and understand that they have power in coming together and in increasing visibility. without the visibility, we are right back at the beginning. all these policymakers and candidates running for state and federal office, even at the highest level, for president, they do not have to say a thing if they can get away with it. it is only if you can create the buzz to make them address the issues. the billions of dollars for the bankers -- the bankers did not
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just talk to each other and say, yes, i hope somebody does something. they came to d.c., came to the state level, they were loud and clear -- do something. parents have to do the same thing. >> i want to -- we will get to a place where by the time we get to the last question we may be right at our 2:00 time. one more question to add to this mix here -- one question here from the lady to arrive. >> good afternoon. i am with title 1 report. thank you for having us. i wanted to ask of you -- how in your organizations are you going to try to get some questions about early child care and learning into this presidential debate? how are we going to get the candidates talking? as far as the reauthorization, had we get those infant and toddler and early learning in there? >> he is ready to go, i know. he will answer that question. >> i actually have an answer for you.
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>> rob is up. then you'll have the last word. >> i will go ahead and let helen have the last word. the reason the bankers got what they got was because they were organized. there were literally quite prepared to show up in the thousands. and they did, in washington d.c., where it mattered. on weekends, parents have to show up in the numbers people can visibly see. 5000, 10,000, 25,000, at a state capital, on a weekend. that is what is visible. that marks a change in the that marks a change in the civic

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